Classic Poem

Rose of Dainascus! rose of all!
Queen of the roses of the world!
The only flower that ere his fall
Adam thought fit to pluck for Eve,
As once she lay in slumber curled,
And he, though half afraid to speak,
Said, “Lovely being, by your leave,
Your husband gives you this—and this:”
Then laid a rose upon her cheek,
A damask rose, and kiss.

The rose before was not so red:
But Eve awoke, and such a blush,
With her smile mingling, overspread
Her face that instantly the flower
Felt through its veins new coloring rush,
Till every petal petal showed the stain!
And so in the most radiant hour
Of midsummer's resplendent morn,
The queen of all the rosy train,
The damask rose, was born!

Soon as this woman, flower in hand,
Led Adam where the strawberries grow,
An oriole from a palm that fanned
These earliest lovers, on the rose
Lighted; and straight his natural hue
Of gold, that red to orange turned!
Then the sly bird his moment chose,
Snatched the rose from her hand, and fled
Far as an amethyst cloud that burned
In the bright blue o'erhead.

Now when thou watchest in the west
The splendors of the dying day,
Think of the damask rose that prest
Her cheek whom we our Mother call,
As dreaming in her bower she lay.
Remember, too, the oriole's theft,—
First theft that was, ere Adam's fall,—
And in the crimson clouds behold,
Unless thy heart all faith have left,
His orange and his gold.