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The Rose.

By William Cowper

Topics: classic

The rose had been washd, just washd in a shower,     Which Mary to Anna conveyd,     The plentiful moisture encumberd the flower,     And weighd down its beautiful head.     The cup was all filld, and the leaves were all wet,     And it seemd, to a fanciful view,     To weep for the buds it had left, with regret,     On the flourishing bush where it grew.     I hastily seized it, unfit as it was     For a nosegay, so dripping and drownd,     And swinging it rudely, too rudely, alas!     I snappd it, it fell to the ground.     And such, I exclaimd, is the pitiless part     Some act by the delicate mind,     Regardless of wringing and breaking a heart     Already to sorrow resignd.     This elegant rose, had I shaken it less,     Might have bloomd with its owner a while;     And the tear, that is wiped with a little address,     May be followd perhaps by a smile.

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"The rose had been washd, just washd in a shower,..."

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Author:William Cowper

"The rose had been washd, just washd in a shower,..." by William Cowper

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"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

William Cowper

About William Cowper

William Cowper (1731–1800) was an English poet and hymnodist whose work bridges the gap between the Augustan age and Romanticism. His poems "The Task" and "John Gilpin" were enormously popular, and his hymn "God Moves in a Mysterious Way" remains widely sung.

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