The Rose and the Gardener
by Austin Dobson 

The Rose in the garden slipped her bud,
And she laughed in the pride of her youthful blood,
As she thought of the Gardener standing by-
"She is old-so old; and he soon will die!" 

The full Rose waxed in the warm June air,
And she spread and spread, till her heart lay bare,
And she laughed once more as she heard his tread,
"He is older now. He will soon be dead!"

But the breeze in the morning blew, and found
That the leaves of the blown Rose strewed the ground;
And he came at noon, that Gardener old,
And he raked them softly under the mold.

And I wove the thing to a random rhyme,
For the Rose is Beauty: the Gardener, Time.