Robustly perfumed
Wild raspberries, deep Damask rose.
Pink, soft shades of lilac
Full cupped flowers shed their tears
Amid the early-summer showers.
You look most beautiful on your own
‘La Riene des toutes les roses…’
When she scatters your petals
on the ground
The name of one she’ll wed
is found…
Redoubtable, more worthy
of elegant verse than prose.
Loveliest of all the Bourbon rose.