Overnight, a Rose

Caroline Giltinan

That overnight a rose could come
 I one time did believe,
For when the fairies live with one,
 They wilfully deceive.
But now I know this perfect thing
 Under the frozen sod
In cold and storm grew patiently
 Obedient to God.
My wonder grows, since knowledge came
 Old fancies to dismiss;
And courage comes.  Was not the rose
 A winter doing this?
Nor did it know, the weary while,
 What color and perfume
With this completed loveliness
 Lay in that earthly tomb.
So maybe I, who cannot see
 What God wills not to show,
May, some day, bear a rose for Him
 It took my life to grow.

From: Rittenhouse, Jessie B.
The Second Book of Modern Verse (1919).

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This collection assembled by Jone Johnson Lewis.
Collection © 1999-2002 Jone Johnson Lewis.

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