“Only a penny, Sir!”
A child held to my view
A bunch of “glory-roses,” red
As blood, and wet with dew.
( O earnest little face,
With living light in eye,
Your roses are too fair for earth,
And you seem of the sky! )
“My beauties, Sir!” he said,
“Only a penny, too!”
His face shone in their ruddy glow
A Rafael cherub true.
“Yestreen their hoods were close
About their faces tight,
But ere the sun was up, I saw
That God had come last night.
“O Sir, to see them then!
The bush was all aflame!—
O yes, they're glory-roses, Sir,
That is their holy name.
“Only a penny, Sir!” —
Heaven seemed across the way!
I took the red, red beauties home —
Roses to me for aye!
For aye, that radiant voice
As if from heaven it came —
“O yes, they're glory-roses, Sir,
That is their holy name!”