| Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900. |
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| John Davidson. 1857–1909 |
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| 851. The Last Rose |
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| 'O WHICH is the last rose?' | |
| A blossom of no name. | |
| At midnight the snow came; | |
| At daybreak a vast rose, | |
| In darkness unfurl'd, | 5 |
| O'er-petall'd the world. | |
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| Its odourless pallor | |
| Blossom'd forlorn, | |
| Till radiant valour | |
| Establish'd the morn— | 10 |
| Till the night | |
| Was undone | |
| In her fight | |
| With the sun. | |
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| The brave orb in state rose, | 15 |
| And crimson he shone first; | |
| While from the high vine | |
| Of heaven the dawn burst, | |
| Staining the great rose | |
| From sky-line to sky-line. | 20 |
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| The red rose of morn | |
| A white rose at noon turn'd; | |
| But at sunset reborn | |
| All red again soon burn'd. | |
| Then the pale rose of noonday | 25 |
| Rebloom'd in the night, | |
| And spectrally white | |
| In the light | |
| Of the moon lay. | |
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| But the vast rose | 30 |
| Was scentless, | |
| And this is the reason: | |
| When the blast rose | |
| Relentless, | |
| And brought in due season | 35 |
| The snow rose, the last rose | |
| Congeal'd in its breath, | |
| Then came with it treason; | |
| The traitor was Death. | |
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| In lee-valleys crowded, | 40 |
| The sheep and the birds | |
| Were frozen and shrouded | |
| In flights and in herds. | |
| In highways | |
| And byways | 45 |
| The young and the old | |
| Were tortured and madden'd | |
| And kill'd by the cold. | |
| But many were gladden'd | |
| By the beautiful last rose, | 50 |
| The blossom of no name | |
| That came when the snow came, | |
| In darkness unfurl'd— | |
| The wonderful vast rose | |
| That fill'd all the world. | 55 |
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