Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.
William Brighty Rands. 18231880755. The Flowers
WHEN Love arose in heart and deed | |
To wake the world to greater joy, | |
‘What can she give me now?’ said Greed, | |
Who thought to win some costly toy. | |
He rose, he ran, he stoop’d, he clutch’d; | 5 |
And soon the Flowers, that Love let fall, | |
In Greed’s hot grasp were fray’d and smutch’d, | |
And Greed said, ‘Flowers! Can this be all?’ | |
He flung them down and went his way, | |
He cared no jot for thyme or rose; | 10 |
But boys and girls came out to play, | |
And some took these and some took those— | |
Red, blue, and white, and green and gold; | |
And at their touch the dew return’d, | |
And all the bloom a thousandfold— | 15 |
So red, so ripe, the roses burn’d! |