Edith Nesbit

Values

   DID you deceive me? Did I trust
   A heart of fire to a heart of dust?
   What matter?  Since once the world was fair,
   And you gave me the rose of the world to wear.

   That was the time to live for!  Flowers,
   Sunshine and starshine and magic hours,
   Summer about me, Heaven above,
   And all seemed immortal, even Love.

   Well, the mortal rose of your love was worth
   The pains of death and the pains of birth;
   And the thorns may be sharper than death—who knows?—
   That crowd round the stem of a deathless rose.