To a Rose (Blank Verse)

         

                             

Flora, Godess of Flowers

                                                                    ( I )

                                                                               

                       Though we know not thy whispers cool

                   We feel thy breath with sensuous zeal;

                   Thou, blushing Flora, May’s beloved child!

                   Shining like a ruby in diamond crown

                   I can’t capture thy dew-decked joy profound

                   How dost thou survive enthroned on thorny seat

                   Untouched by pain without a bleeding heart ?

                   Better there to remain caressed by gentle air

                   Than fade away crushed by our sinful hands ;

                   Thy pretty spirit will never fade but bloom again

                   Thy fragrance remains embalmed within our hearts

                   Like a star emerging from this earthly gloom

                   Like an angel soaring skywards with scented wings

                   Thy presence we ever feel in crimson light of dawn.

                                                 ( I I )

   

                 Let me touch thy vermilion visage pure

                 And sense thy wondrous beauty of God-gifted charm ;

                 Gently smelling thy sweet inspiring breath ;

                 Like a saint’s crown entwined with pricking thorns

                 Thy state remains above our destructive gaze

                 Vain fantasies won’t cheat thy sacred state ;

                 No earthly sin can spoil thee, thou offspring of God !

                 When thou fadest smiling with heavenly ease 

                 A happy dirge I sing to thy departing soul

                 As summer flies away with cuckoo’s farewell song .

                 As night spreads her dark, silent, dusky shroud

                 Ever I recall thy rosy memories of thy happy state

                 In unfading joys sparkling like thy radiant soul

                 Like rising Phoebus spreading daylight warm.

                  ________________________________

              11th November, 2017                                Somaseshu Gutala


          Note :     1)    Flora = Goddess of flowers and spring  

                           2)    happy dirge =  A funeral song with joy

                                   as the flower is the symbol of immortal love.

                           3)    Phoebus  = Sun God (Apollo)

                           4)    shroud   =  a cloth used for wrapping a dead body.