Explore "Two Roses" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
A humble wild-rose, pink and slender, / Was plucked and placed in a bright bouquet, / Beside a Jacqueminot's royal splendour, / And both in my lady's boudoir lay.
Said the haughty bud, in a tone of scorning, / "I wonder why you are called a rose? / Your leaves will fade in a single morning; / No blood of mine in your pale cheek glows.
"Your coarse green stalk shows dust of the highway, / You have no depths of fragrant bloom; / And what could you learn in a rustic byway / To fit you to lie in my lady's room?
"If called to adorn her warm, white bosom, / What have you to offer for such a place, / Beside my fragrant and splendid blossom, / Ripe with colour and rich with grace?"
Said the sweet wild-rose, "Despite your dower / Of finer breeding and deeper hue, / Despite your beauty, fair, high-bred flower, / It is I who should lie on her breast, not you.
"For small account is your hot-house glory / Beside the knowledge that came to me / When I heard by the wayside love's old story / And felt the kiss of the amorous bee. "