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Home  »  Women Poets of the Nineteenth Century  »  Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830–1894)

Alfred H. Miles, ed. Women Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907.

By Time Flies. III. “Where Shall I Find a White Rose Blowing?”

Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830–1894)

March 5

WHERE shall I find a white rose blowing?—

Out in the garden where all sweets be.—

But out in my garden the snow was snowing

And never a white rose opened for me.

Nought but snow and a wind were blowing

And snowing.

Where shall I find a blush rose blushing?—

On the garden wall or the garden bed.—

But out in my garden the rain was rushing

And never a blush rose raised its head.

Nothing glowing, flushing or blushing;

Rain rushing.

Where shall I find a red rose budding?—

Out in the garden where all things grow.—

But out in my garden a flood was flooding

And never a red rose began to blow.

Out in a flooding what should be budding?

All flooding!

Now is winter and now is sorrow,

No roses but only thorns to-day:

Thorns will put on roses to-morrow,

Winter and sorrow scudding away.

No more winter and no more sorrow

To-morrow.