MY love and I, the other day, Within a myrtle arbour lay, When near us, from a rosy bed, A little Snake put forth its head. "See," said the maid, with laughing eyes -- "Yonder the fatal emblem lies! Who could expect such hidden harm Beneath the rose's velvet charm?" Never did moral thought occur In more unlucky hour than this; For oh! I just was leading her To talk of love and think of bliss. I rose to kill the snake, but she In pity pray'd it might not be. "No," said the girl -- and many a spark Flash'd from her eyelid as she said it -- "Under the rose, or in the dark, One might, perhaps, have cause to dread it; But when its wicked eyes appear, And when we know for what they wink so, One must be very simple, dear, To let it sting one -- don't you think so?" | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...HOME-THOUGHTS, FROM ABROAD by ROBERT BROWNING WRINKLES by WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR AT THE CANNON'S MOUTH by HERMAN MELVILLE THE DOLLS by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS MOVE UPWARD by ALEXANDER ANDERSON TO MR. BOWRING ON HIS POETICAL TRANSLATIONS by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD |