The Rose / Theodosia Garrison

Woman With a Rose, by Winslow Homer (1836-1910), 1879. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

The Rose  (1917)  by Theodosia Garrison

from The Dreamers, and other poems, 1917

The Rose

I took the love you gave, Ah, carelessly,
    Counting it only as a rose to wear
        A little moment on my heart, no more,
        So many roses had I worn before,
    So lightly that I scarce believed them there.

But, Lo! this rose between the dusk and dawn
    Hath turned to very flame upon my breast,
        A flame that burns the day-long and the night,
        A flame of very anguish and delight
    That not for any moment yields me rest.

And I am troubled with a strange, new fear,
    How would it be if even to your door
        I came to cry your pitying one day,
        And you should lightly laugh and lightly say,
    "That was a rose I gave you — nothing more."

This poem is in the public domain