List and learn, ye dainty roses,

Roses white and roses red,

Why we bind you into posies

Ere your morning bloom has fled.

By a law of maiden's making,

Accents of a heart that's aching,

Even though that heart be breaking,

Should by maiden be unsaid:

Though they love with love exceeding,

They must seem to be unheeding-

Go ye then and do their pleading,

Roses white and roses red!