Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


TWO LIVES. PART 2: 24 by WILLIAM ELLERY LEONARD

First Line: THIS IS THE RED ROSE, DEAR, AND THIS THE WHITE
Last Line: "COME BACK; COME, SING THE CHEERIEST SONG YOU KNOW."

"This is the red rose, dear, and this the white,
The white rose this, beloved, this the red,"
As I unpinned the paper, thus I said;
"Love's passion and Love's purity -- ere night
You'll laugh with their green stems amid your hair."
She set in slender vase of blue and gold
(I never saw them after), with slow stare
Put hands upon my shoulders (as of old? --
Not quite), and gazed long and unspeakably. . .
"These flowers I wore upon my wedding dress." . .
A pause. . . "O my poor husband . . . must it be?"
Then clung so close, as in a wilderness. . .
And then would dart away. . . "You mustn't go --
Come back; come, sing the cheeriest song you know."



Home: PoetryExplorer.net