"What If The Rose Should Bloom"

________________________________________________
Title:     "What If The Rose Should Bloom"
Author: John Presland [More Titles by Presland]

What if the rose should bloom,
And the sunset deepen and fade,
If we are penned in the gloom
By close-barred shutters made?

What of the birds and the sun,
And the moon-rise behind the trees,
To the eyes and ears of one
Who neither hears nor sees?

What of the world of love,
Its fragrance, and light, and bloom,
To the soul that cannot move
Out of a loveless room?

Were it better the rose were dead
In a black December frost,
That no more skies were red,
That lovers' ways were lost?

Ah no! The wood must shrink,
Bar closely as you may,
And between the shutters' chink
Slips in the sunlight's ray.

So that the prisoner knows
It is June in the world outside,
And his heart is glad for the rose,
Though to him it is denied.

For the love of lovely things
Must quench all bitterness,
And whilst the robin sings
No heart is comfortless.

[The end]
John Presland's poem: "What If The Rose Should Bloom"

________________________________________________



GO TO TOP OF SCREEN