SHALL that bright flower the countless ages toiled And travailed to bring forth -- shall that rare rose, Whose bloom and fragrance earth and heaven unclose Their treasuries to enrich, by death be foiled? Its matchless splendor trampled down and spoiled? Shall that Celestial Love -- who watched its throes Through centuries of long struggles and of woes, And freed it from the old Serpent round it coiled; Who tended it, and reared its glorious head Above the brambles and the poisonous marsh, And shielded it when zones were cased in ice -- Leave it to perish when the summons harsh Of death is rung, -- or, ere its leaves are shed, Transplant it to his realm of Paradise? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...RELIEVING GUARD by FRANCIS BRET HARTE PREJUDICE by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON PARADISI GLORIA by THOMAS WILLIAM PARSONS UNEXPECTED FORTUNE by ABUL QASIM OF SILVES THE GRASS STEALERS by J. MURRAY ALLISON TWO SONNETS: 1 by DAVID P. BERENBERG TRIBUTE TO THE MEMORY OF CHARLES VINE DE PUY by LEVI BISHOP |