Thursday, June 7, 2018

Sweet Wild Rose


 
 
 

  My Wild Rose.

I had a garden, which I kept
With busy hands and tender care;
And once, while carelessly I slept,
Fanned softly by the drowsy air,
A wild rose to my garden crept,
And blossomed there.

O, sweet surprise. It seemed to me,
Some fair hand, my heart to bless,
Had brought it there, from wood or lee.
It came unsought 'twas loved no less;
I stooped and touched it tenderly,
With soft caress.

I grew to love it passing well;
While strange exotics, rich and rare,
With heart of gold and crimson bell,
Paid grudgingly for constant care,
My wild rose, as in a woodland dell,
Bloomed fresh and fair.

I watered not, I did not prune,
I tied it not with cord or thong;
Yet, morn by morn and noon by noon,
Through days of summer, hot and long,
And underneath the midnight moon,
From branches strong.

Hung clustered blossoms sweet and red;
And day by day and week by week,
I trod the path which toward it lead.
Whate'er my mood. I did not speak,
But close against bowed my head
And pressed my cheek.

I think of it with sudden thrill.
Now wide lands lie, deep water flows,
Smiles many a vale, looms many a hill
Between me and the garden-close;
Yet fondly I remember still
My sweet wild rose.

~ Ellen P. Allerton. Walls of Corn and Other Poems 1894

 

6 comments:

Patsy said...

My sweet wild rose, my neighbor has a red wild rose
blooms once in the spring. No smell to it.I would like to cut it
down and but a real good smelling rose in.

Anonymous said...

What a lovely poem. I thoroughly enjoyed. Thank you for putting it here for us to find.

I adore your blog. I come to read and rest... and do just that.

Lily

DJan said...

That is a very sweet poem, Jo. Thank you for sharing it and your own wild rose. :-)

Janneke said...

Thank you for sharing this wonderful rose poem with us. I love all what concerns roses.....

Janice Kay Schaub said...

Love that poem, thanks for posting it
Hugs Janice

L. D. said...

I have an Iowa state rose at the old place but I don’t have the acreage to plant it at the new place. It would invade all my neighbors. Your rose looks really good.