The Rose of Flora
On Brady’s tower there grows a flower,
It is the loveliest flower that blows,—
At Castle Brady there lives a lady,
(And how I love her no one knows);
Her name is Nora, and the goddess Flora
Presents her with this blooming rose.
“O Lady Nora,” says the goddess Flora,
“I’ve many a rich and bright parterre;
In Brady’s towers there’s seven more flowers,
But you’re the fairest lady there:
Not all the county, nor Ireland’s bounty,
Can projuice a treasure that’s half so fair!”
What cheek is redder? sure roses fed her!
Her hair is maregolds, and her eye of blew.
Beneath her eyelid, is like the vi’let,
That darkly glistens with gentle jew!
The lily’s nature is not surely whiter
Than Nora’s neck is,—and her arrums too.
“Come, gentle Nora,” says the goddess Flora,
My dearest creature, take my advice,
There is a poet, full well you know it,
Who spends his lifetime in heavy sighs,—
Young Redmond Barry, ’tis him you’ll marry,
If rhyme and raisin you’d choose likewise.”
