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The Bibelot
VOLUME I
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From The Bibelot, A Reprint of Poetry and Prose for Book Lovers, chosen in part from scarce editions and sources not generally known, Volume I, Number III, Testimonial Edition, Edited and Originally Published by Thomas B. Mosher, Portland, Maine; Wm. Wise & Co.; New York; 1895; p. 75.
“The next piece which I shall quote differs in some important respects from the general style adopted by the Goliardi in their love-poetry. It is written in rhyming or leonine hexameters, and is remarkable for its quaint play on names, conceived and executed in a truly mediæval taste. ”
TAKE thou this rose, O Rose! the loves in the rose
repose:
I with love of the rose am caught at the winter’s
close:
Take thou this flower, my flower, and cherish it in
thy bower:
Thou in thy beauty’s power shalt lovelier blow each
hour:
Gaze at the rose, and smile, my rose, in mine eyes
the while:
To thee the roses belong, thy voice is the nightin-
gale’s song:
Give thou the rose a kiss, it blushes like thy mouth’s
bliss:
Flowers in a picture seem not flowers, but flowers
in a dream:
Who paints the rose’s bloom, paints not the rose’s
perfume.