Rose

I never thought at all of Rose,

As Rose and I went through the dell.

We fell a-talking I suppose,

But yet of what I cannot tell.

Pebbles below and mosses over,

Rippled a cool and limpid rill;

Nature lay sleeping like a lover

In the embrace of the woods so still.

Shoes and stockings off she slipped

And with her sweetly innocent air

Into the stream her feet she dipped,

Yet I never saw her feet were bare.

I only talked, the time beguiling

As we wandered, she and I;

And sometimes I saw her smiling

But now and then I heard her sigh.

Only her beauty dawned on me

when silent woods were left behind.

"Never mind that now!" said she...

And now I shall always mind.