Nobody knows this little Rose－1
It might a pilgrim be
Did I not take it from the ways
And lift it up to thee.
Only a Bee will miss it－5
Only a Butterfly,
Hastening from far journey－
On its breast to lie－
Only a Bird will wonder－9
Only a Breeze will sigh－
Ah Little Rose－how easy
For such as thee to die!
It might a pilgrim be
Did I not take it from the ways
And lift it up to thee.
Only a Bee will miss it－5
Only a Butterfly,
Hastening from far journey－
On its breast to lie－
Only a Bird will wonder－9
Only a Breeze will sigh－
Ah Little Rose－how easy
For such as thee to die!
(F.11/J.35)
[1] Rose:: rose cockatoo, or rose-breasted cockatoo, hinted by pilgrim.
[2] pilgrim:: early settler, especially the Puritan of Plymouth, Massachusetts; a hint on cockatoo settler.
[3] take it:: the bird died on the road.
[4] up to thee:: she put the bird before a settler's tombstone, hinted in line twelve.
[5] Bee:: a busy worker; bee, butterfly, bird, breeze also mean four types of person.
[6] Butterfly:: a showy trifler.
[9] Bird:: a teenage boy.
[10] Breeze:: a gadfly (OED n.1 1); a nobody.
[11, 12] Rose, easy, thee:: a settler in a bad environment like a rose cockatoo.
Rose Cockatoo. Head and body, fine rose-colour; quills, wings, and vent, ashen. ─ The Animal Kingdom (1827)
"We were also very near being led into a dilemma by a mischievous cockatoo settler. Most agricultural settlers are thus styled by the squatters, because, I suppose, they look upon them, with their enclosures, as plunderers and encroachers on their wild woods, settling down upon them, as the cockatoos do on the ripening corn. ─ Land, Labour, and Gold (1855)