Poems (Kennedy)/Roses

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4590585Poems — RosesSara Beaumont Kennedy

RAISON D'ÊTRE
WHAT matters the red of a laughing lip
  If it go unkissed?
And where is the worth of small white hands
  If a lover's clasp be missed?

Red lips may's well be pinched and pale
  If fates are all unkind,
And small white hands go convent-sworn
  If eyes of men be blind.

For beauty is hostage for sweets of life
  Since time began to move,
And the raison d'être of living at all
  Is ever and always love.


ROSES
(VALENTINE SONG)

IT was just a rose I sent her,
  Just a half-blown rose,
And the message that it carried
  Everybody knows.

Each petal bore a greeting
  For my lady fair,
And, oh, the whole wide world might read
  What was written there.

For roses are Love's servitors—
  Roses red as wine.
"I love you, love you, love you, sweet,"
  Is their mystic sign.

It was just a rose I sent her,
  Just a fragrant rose,
But that it carried all my heart
  Everybody knows!