Read "Roses, a Memory of Alexandra Day" by Harry Graham online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
(_With apologies to Wordsworth_)
I wandered shyly as a ghost / That prowls in haunted keeps and tow'rs, / When all at once I saw a host, / A crowd of ladies selling flow'rs; / Along the Mall, beside the Pond, / From Lady Cr-we to Lady M-nd!
Continuous as the stars that shine, / Like poppies in a field of wheat, / They stretched in never-ending line / Along the kerb of ev'ry street; / Ten thousand saw I, file by file, / Selling their 'blooms' with sprightly smile.
The world about them smiled, for they / Bedecked the dingy thoroughfares; / A fellow could not fail to pay / His penny for such wares as theirs. / I bought and bought -- but little guessed / What wealth those simple flowers expressed.
For all the cash they helped to net, / In streets where stood their rosy stalls, / Went to reduce that endless debt / Which is the curse of hospitals; / And Chairmen cast dull care away / And danced on Alexandra Day!