Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume V. Nature. 1904. | | | | V. Trees: Flowers: Plants | | The Moss Rose | | Friedrich Adolf Krummacher (1767–1845) |
| | Anonymous translation from the German |
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THE ANGEL of the flowers, one day, | |
| Beneath a rose-tree sleeping lay,— | |
| That spirit to whose charge ’t is given | |
| To bathe young buds in dews of heaven. | |
| Awaking from his light repose, | 5 |
| The angel whispered to the rose: | |
| “O fondest object of my care, | |
| Still fairest found, where all are fair; | |
| For the sweet shade thou giv’st to me | |
| Ask what thou wilt, ’t is granted thee.” | 10 |
| “Then,” said the rose, with deepened glow, | |
| “On me another grace bestow.” | |
| The spirit paused, in silent thought, | |
| What grace was there that flower had not? | |
| ’T was but a moment,—o’er the rose | 15 |
| A veil of moss the angel throws, | |
| And, robed in nature’s simplest weed, | |
| Could there a flower that rose exceed? | | | |
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