And What Were Roses
And What Were Roses - meaning Summary
Dream-ladies and Roses
The speaker questions what roses really are and shifts from abstract qualities (perfume, music, twilight) to a humanized vision: the roses seem to be the delicate, dreamlike women who haunt his imagination. He alternates between calling them ladies and queens, combining innocence and regal playfulness. The poem explores perception and idealized femininity, suggesting beauty is not just a thing but embodied in living, fleeting figures loved by dawn.
Read Complete Analysesand what were roses. Perfume?for i do forget…or mere Music mounting unsurely twilight but here were something more maturely childish,more beautiful almost than you. Yet if not flower,tell me softly who be these haunters of dreams always demurely halfsmiling from cool faces,moving purely with muted steps,yet somewhat proudly too— are they not ladies,ladies of my dreams justly touching roses their fingers whitely live by? or better, queens,queens laughing lightly crowned with far colors, thinking very much of nothing and whom dawn loves most to touch wishing by willows,bending upon streams?
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