Sea Rose
Hilda Doolittle (1916)
Rose, harsh rose, marred and with stint of petals, meagre flower, thin, spare of leaf,
more precious than a wet rose single on a stem --
you are caught in the drift. you are sea rose.
Stunted, with small leaf, you are flung on the sand,
you are lifted in the crisp sand that drives in the wind.
Can the spice-rose drip such acrid fragrance hardened in a leaf? you are sea flower,sea rose