English Poetry. Menella Bute Smedley. I Went to Look for Roses. Менелла Бьют Смедли.

Menella Bute Smedley (Менелла Бьют Смедли)

* * *

I went to look for roses
When snow was on the ground,
Alas, a wither'd thorn-bush
Was all the flowers I found!
I thought of summer-blossoms
Alight with dews of morn,
And down I sate me weeping
Beside the barren thorn.
Out spake a grey-hair'd neighbour,—
“O madness! not to know
The time of living roses
Is not the time of snow.”
Fie on such foolish comfort!
It never dried one tear;
I am weeping for my roses
Because they are not here.

Menella Bute Smedley’s other poems:

1. Wooden Legs
2. The Story of Queen Isabel
3. The Little White Doe
4. Two Journeys
5. The Wedding-Ring

To the dedicated English version of this website

---