Littell's Living Age/Volume 128/Issue 1657/The Best Use

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Littell's Living Age by Mary Ainge De Vere
Volume 128, Issue 1657 : The Best Use


Out of the bud the bright rose bloweth,
And all the soul of her sweetness goeth
     Abroad to the sun and wind and rain;
But ah! ah never, in any weather,
Can she fold up her leaves together,
     And close herself in a bud again!

But if the sun and wind be sweeter,
And summer’s beautiful dress completer
     Because of the rose’s graceful part,
Were it not wiser far and better
Than, bound and locked in her fair green fetter,
     To die with an untouched virgin heart?