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Show TWO ROSES. George Hoi ton. Iu my hand I was holding a ruse. And 'twas red as a red grosbeak's crest, Or the throat of a maid, when she knows That her secret is guessed. I stood on tho coruor alone ; All alone iu tho populous street-Just street-Just a part of the town, like the stone Beneath hurrying feet. Of a sudden there stood at niy side A maiden dellciously fair, And I gassed on her her face, while she eyed The red rose I held there. And she thought (I could tell by her eyes), "There is naught half so beautiful grow" ; While I vowed with the faintest of sighs "She herself Is a rose." Then I went to my toll, but the lips And the eyes and the graces of her Swam before me, until, in eclipse, - All my task grew a blur. So I said: ' Tis the flower that has caught In its petals her blush and her breath, And its fragrance is memory fraught, Thus I doom It to doath." And I seized it, and tore apart, When Alas 1 Can I tell such a tiling, From the depths of its balmy red heart Came a wasp's cruel sting! |