A ROYAL rose! A rose how darkly red! A proud, voluptuous, full blown flower, that sways Her sceptre o'er the wind-swept garden-ways, With mantling cheek and bold, imperious head! Alone she lifts above yon desolate bed A beauty past all terms of raptured praise, The statelier that she rules in autumn days, When every rival flower is dimmed or dead! A haughty Cleopatra! there she smiles, Unwitting that her sovereign love is lost -- Her Antony! a gorgeous sunflower bloom! Ah! vain henceforth her beauty and sweet wiles! Queen! art thou blind? Thy lord hath met his doom; His Actium came with winter's vanguard -- Frost! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DEJECTION: AN ODE by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE A RECIPE FOR SALAD by SYDNEY SMITH WINTER WATER by KENNETH SLADE ALLING THE SINGLE ERROR by VIVIAN PIKE BOLES A SHEPHERD'S DREAM by NICHOLAS BRETON |