60 Years of Thorns & Roses

By Elmer Ellsworth Shelhamer

Poem

THORNS -- BUT ROSES

      Everette E. Shelhamer

 

      In every rosy-bosomed bower

     Where zephyrs mourn,

     There lurks anear each perfumed flower

     The cruel thorn.

      Lost in the labyrinthine leaves

     It hidden lies,

     And with sly treachery deceives

     With sharp surprise.

      Full many lovers of the flowers

     Have plucked their gain,

     But went away to rue sad hours,

     And suffer pain.

      E'en so amid our rose-bloom life,

     Crimson and sweet,

     There lurk the thorns of anguish, strife,

     Like awns in wheat.

      No one can boast a thornless way,

     Or roses all,

     But mankind have their tears to pay

     In sorrow's thrall.

      Ay, life doth have its thorns and throes,

     (Some hearts have swooned)

     But ah! the fragrance of the rose

     After the wound.

 

 
Book Navigation Title Page Preface Table of Contents Poem Dedication Introduction Part I ► Chapter 1 ► Chapter 2 ► Chapter 3 ► Chapter 4 ► Chapter 5 ► Chapter 6 ► Chapter 7 ► Chapter 8 ► Chapter 9 ► Chapter 10 ► Chapter 11 ► Chapter 12 ► Chapter 13 ► Chapter 14 ► Chapter 15 ► Chapter 16 ► Chapter 17 ► Chapter 18 ► Chapter 19 ► Chapter 20 ► Chapter 21 ► Chapter 22 ► Chapter 23 ► Chapter 24 ► Chapter 25 ► Chapter 26 ► Chapter 27 ► Chapter 28 ► Chapter 29 ► Chapter 30 ► Chapter 31 ► Chapter 32 ► Chapter 33 ► Chapter 34 ► Chapter 35 ► Chapter 36 ► Chapter 37 ► Chapter 38 ► Chapter 39 Part II ► Chapter 40 ► Chapter 41 ► Chapter 42 ► Chapter 43 ► Chapter 44 ► Chapter 45 ► Chapter 46 ► Chapter 47 ► Chapter 48 ► Chapter 49 ► Chapter 50 ► Chapter 51 Part III ► Chapter 52 ► Chapter 53 ► Chapter 54 ► Chapter 55 ► Chapter 56 ► Chapter 57 ► Chapter 58 ► Chapter 59 Part IV ► Chapter 60 ► Chapter 61 ► Chapter 62 ► Chapter 63 ► Chapter 64 ► Chapter 65 ► Chapter 66

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