'O WHICH is the last rose?' <br />A blossom of no name. <br />At midnight the snow came; <br />At daybreak a vast rose, <br />In darkness unfurl'd, <br />O'er-petall'd the world. <br /> <br />Its odourless pallor <br />Blossom'd forlorn, <br />Till radiant valour <br />Establish'd the morn-- <br />Till the night <br />Was undone <br />In her fight <br />With the sun. <br /> <br />The brave orb in state rose, <br />And crimson he shone first; <br />While from the high vine <br />Of heaven the dawn burst, <br />Staining the great rose <br />From sky-line to sky-line. <br /> <br />The red rose of morn <br />A white rose at noon turn'd; <br />But at sunset reborn <br />All red again soon burn'd. <br />Then the pale rose of noonday <br />Rebloom'd in the night, <br />And spectrally white <br /> In the light <br />Of the moon lay. <br /> <br />But the vast rose <br /> Was scentless, <br />And this is the reason: <br />When the blast rose <br /> Relentless, <br />And brought in due season <br />The snow rose, the last rose <br />Congeal'd in its breath, <br />Then came with it treason; <br />The traitor was Death. <br /> <br />In lee-valleys crowded, <br />The sheep and the birds <br />Were frozen and shrouded <br />In flights and in herds. <br />In highways <br />And byways <br />The young and the old <br />Were tortured and madden'd <br />And kill'd by the cold. <br />But many were gladden'd <br />By the beautiful last rose, <br />The blossom of no name <br />That came when the snow came, <br />In darkness unfurl'd-- <br />The wonderful vast rose <br />That fill'd all the world.<br /><br />John Davidson<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-last-rose/
