To
A Rose From France
~~
by Nancy Virginia
Jackson Rhea
my grandmother
~~
(Verses inspired
by the receipt of a rose
plucked from a bush
growing on a trench
battlefield and
sent to the author by the
young soldier who
discovered it in a
devastated garden
just behind the
firing line.)
~~
Across the sea
you came to me
With petals folded
still and white,
O'er ocean's
foam and far from home
You thrill me
with strange delight.
~~
From its drooping
stalk by the soldiers' walk,
A boyish hand
has plucked the flower,
And o'er the
foam to friends at home
You came, an
envoy of rare power.
~~
A dream of June
and summer noon,
'Mid folds of
sweetness still embracing;
With memory's
trance of sunny France
And sorrow with
these interlacing.
~~
Thy brooding
heart gives me no part,
But dumb with
sorrow still encloses;
'Mid happier
themes those of the screams
Of shot and shell
among the roses.
~~
When summer days
with warming rays
And breezes blow
with peace from God,
Thy sisters blush
amid the hush
Of prayer time
'neath the sod.
~~
Then bloom for
aye, sweet roses gay,
Forgotten be
the scars you're wearing;
I bear the scars
from woeful wars
'Gainst sins
red flag unfurled and daring.
~~
~N. V. Rhea~
(Written during
World War 1)
-Published - 1923
-
Copyright 1923,
N. V. Rhea
~~
To
Poetry-"Compensation"
Nancy
Virginia Rhea Genealogy
Back
to Table of Contents
~
Music
~
"The Ballad of
the Cross"
(Copyright
1997 by Elton Smith
and
Larry Holder)
