Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Two Roses

A humble wild-rose, pink and slender,
   Was plucked and placed in a bright bouquet,
Beside a Jacqueminot’s royal splendor,
   And both in my lady’s boudoir lay.
 
Said the haughty bud, in a tone of scorning,
   “I wonder why you are called a rose?
Your leaves will fade in a single morning,
   No blood of mine in your pale cheek glows.
 
“Your coarse green stalk shows dust of the highway,
   You have no depths of fragrant bloom;
And what could you learn in a rustic byway
   To fit you to lie in my lady’s room?
 
“If called to adorn her warm white bosom,
   What have you to offer for such a place,
Beside my fragrant and splendid blossom,
   Ripe with color and rich with grace?”
 
Said the sweet wild-rose, “Despite your dower
   Of finer breeding and deeper hue,
Despite your beauty, fair, high-bred flower,
   It is I who should lie on her breast, not you.
 
“For small account is your hot-house glory
   Beside the knowledge that came to me
When I heard by the wayside love’s old story,
   And felt the kiss of the amorous bee.”

Poems of sentiment by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Chicago, IL : W. B. Conkey Company, c1906.

#AmericanWriters

Other works by Ella Wheeler Wilcox...



Top