The Rosebush

'Neath a rosebush, sleeping, a young child lies,

    The buds are swelling with breath of May,

    As far away, in her dream-thought play,

She sports with angels in paradise,

The years pass on.

By the rosebush stands in the gladsome morn

    A maiden now, perfume-caressed,

    Her fair hand pressed on her heaving breast,

By her wondrous new love-bliss o'erborne

The years pass on.

By the rosebush now a mother kneels;

    The rose-leaves soften in evening's rays,

    While by-gone days, in memory's maze,

Brims the eyes with the grief a bereaved one feels,

The years pass on.

Despoiled and lonely, the rosebush moans,

    As the autumn wind waves the rose-leaves all,

    Till withered they fall, in a rustling pall,

On a peaceful grave that a secret owns.

The years pass on!

Warren Fenno Gregory

Index to poems in the collection by Warren Feno Gregory