All of the poems I will read today are about roses and all are from times long past.
Robert Merrick (1591-1674) wrote the well-known lines:
"Gather ye rosebuds while you may,
Old time is still a-flying,
And this same flower that smiles today,
Tomorrow will be dying."
Edmund Waller(1606-1687) wrote:
"Go lovely rose
tell her that wastes her time and me,
that now she knows,
when I resemble her to thee,
how sweet and fair
she seems to be."
Dorothy Parker (1893-1967) wrote the poem with the most humor. It is called "One Perfect Rose."
“A single flower he sent to me, since we met
All tenderly his messenger he chose
Deep-hearted, pure, with scented dew still wet
One perfect rose.
I knew the language of the flowers
‘My fragile leaves’ it said, ‘his heart enclose’
Love long has taken for its amulet
One perfect rose.
Why is it no one ever sent me yet
One perfect limousine, do you suppose?
Ah no, it’s always just my luck to get,
One perfect rose!”
This is Moya Andrews, and today we focused on roses of the past.
