Henry Lawson

The Rose

The Rose - meaning Summary

Love of the Rose

Lawson’s poem expresses a simple, collective devotion to the rose as symbol and solace rooted in the land. Speakers claim an intimate, almost secret love that everyone nonetheless shares. The rose unites scenes of place—hedges, beaches, thorny ground—with life’s endings: roses placed at the dead and the lament of “Too late!” The poem contrasts communal recognition with private longing, suggesting affection that arrives after loss but persists as memory.

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We love the land when the world goes round, and deep, deep down in her thorny ground, where nobody comes, and nobody knows, we love the Rose. Oh! we love the Rose. And none to tell us, and none to teach by the western hedge or the shelving beach, but all of us know what everyone knows, we love the Rose. Oh! we love the Rose. We love the rose when our day is dead, and they lay their roses upon our bed; Too late! Too late! in our last repose! But we love the Rose. Ah! We love the Rose.

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