Pansies (Lawrence)/The Rose of England

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THE ROSE OF ENGLAND
Oh the rose of England is a single roseand damasked red and white!
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But roses, if they're fed too muchchange from being single and become graduallydouble and that's what happened to the English rose.
The wild rose in a sheltered gardenwhen it need struggle no moresoftly blows out its thin little male stamensinto broad sweet petals,and through the centuries goes on and onpuffing its little male stamens out into sterile petal flamestill at last it's a full, full rose, and has no male dust any more,it propagates no more.
So it is with Englishmen.They are all double rosesand their true maleness is gone.
Oh the rose of England is a single roseand needs to be raised from seed.
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