Explore "How the White Rose Came" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
The roses all were pink and red, / Before the Bumble Bee, / A lover bold, with cloak of gold, / Came singing merrily / Along the sunlit ways that led / From woodland, and from lea.
He paused beside an opening rose, / The garden's pet and pride; / She burst in flower that very hour, / While wooing zephyrs sighed; / No smile had she for one of those, / And hope within them died.
The ardent butterfly in vain / On radiant wings drew near; / The hapless moth in vain grew wroth- / The fair rose leaned to hear / The deep-voiced stranger's low refrain / That thrilled upon her ear.
She gave her heart in love's delight / And let the whole world see; / Alas! one day, away, away, / Sped truant Bumble Bee; / 'Twas then the red rose turned to white- / So was the tale told me.