Explore "To Miss Cruickshank" by Robert Burns on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
A very Young Lady
Written on the Blank Leaf of a Book, presented to her by the Author.
Beauteous Rosebud, young and gay, / Blooming in thy early May, / Never may'st thou, lovely flower, / Chilly shrink in sleety shower! / Never Boreas' hoary path, / Never Eurus' pois'nous breath, / Never baleful stellar lights, / Taint thee with untimely blights! / Never, never reptile thief / Riot on thy virgin leaf! / Nor even Sol too fiercely view / Thy bosom blushing still with dew!
May'st thou long, sweet crimson gem, / Richly deck thy native stem; / Till some ev'ning, sober, calm, / Dropping dews, and breathing balm, / While all around the woodland rings, / And ev'ry bird thy requiem sings; / Thou, amid the dirgeful sound, / Shed thy dying honours round, / And resign to parent Earth / The loveliest form she e'er gave birth.