History and symbolism of the rose.
From The Essence of Roses: A Tribute in Word and Image.
All the world glows with roses, roses, roses. Saul Chernihovsky (1875-1943) Russian-born American poet.
In the midst of briars it blows -- just like love. Luiz Vaz de Camoens (1424?-1580) Portuguese poet.
Because it is sure of its beauty, the rose makes terrible demands on us. Alain Meilland.
A rose, bent by the wind and pricked by thorns, yet has its heart turned upwards Huna (c. 216-297 AD) Babylonian writer.
Antiquity
[From The Rose Garden, by William Paul, p. 6:] Virgil, "the prince of Latin poets," makes frequent mention of the Rose in his writings.
Who reaches with a clumsy hand for a rose must not complain if the thorns scratch Heinrich Heine (1797-1856) German poet.
A little rose that laughs upon its stem, one of the sweets with which the gardens teem, in value soars above an eastern gem -- if tendered as a token of esteem. Allan Cunningham (1784-1842) Scottish poet.
Then will I raise aloft the milk-white rose, For whose sweet smell the ait shall be perfumed. William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English playwright and poet.
-- saharas have their centruies; ten thousand of which are smaller than a rose's moment. E.E. Cummings (1894-1962) American poet.
... a rose is the most satisfying. It's the most demanding, it offers a challenge. And it must be treated with respect. Helen Hayes (1900- ) American actress.
Some people are always grumbling because roses have thorns; I am thankful that thorns have roses, Alphonse Kar (1808-1890) French writer and editor.
Oh, no man knows through what wild centuries roves back the rose. Walter de la Mare (1873-1956) English poet.
When love came first to Earth, the Spring spread rose-beds to receive him. Thomas Campbell (1777-1844) Scottish poet.
Like the rose I, too, was careless in the morning dews. Dame Edith Sitwell (1887-1964) English poet.
My love is like a red, red rose that's newly sprung in June. Robert Burns (1759-1796) Scottish poet.
The sweetest flower that bloews, I give you as we part. For you it is a rose, for me it is my heart Frederick Peterson (1859-1938) American poet.
A flash of dew, a bee or two, A breeze, a caper in the trees, -- And I'm a rose! Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) American poet.
They that have roses never need bread. Dorothy Parker (1893-1967) American writer.
Time brings roses. Portuguese proverb.
The rose that lives its little hour is prized beyond the sculptured flower. William Cullen Bryant (1794-1832) American poet, critic, and editor.
The best rose-bush, after all, is not that which has the fewest thorns but that which bears the finest roses. Henry Van Dyke (1852-1933) American essayist and poet.
And is there any moral shut within the bosom of the rose? Lord Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892) English poet.
Each rose that comes brings me greetings from the Rose of an eternal spring. Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) Hindu poet.
A rose is an argument. It proclaims the triumph of beauty over brutality, of gentleness over violense, of the ephemeral over the lasting, and of the universal over the particular. The same rose bursts into bloom on the North Cape and in the Sahara desert. Alain Meilland.
The cowslip is a country wench, the violet is a nun -- but I will woo the dainty rose, the queen of every one. Thomas Hood (1799-1845) English poet.
When pleasure's blooming season glows, the graces love to twine the rose. Thomas Moore (1779-1852) Irish poet.
And I wove the thing to a random rhyme, For the Rose is Beauty, the Gardener, Time. Austin Dobson (1840-1921) English poet.
The rose, wherein the world divine makes itself flesh. Dante (1265-1321) Italian poet.
I don't know whether nice people tend to grow roses, or growing roses makes people nice. Roland A. Browne, 1939- American professor.
Won't you come into the garden? I would like my roses to see you. Richard B. Sheridan (1751-1816) English dramatist.
Where you tend a rose, my lad, a thistle cannot grow. Frances Hodgson Burnett (1859-1924) American writer.
One comes back to those old-fashioned roses as one does to old music and poetry. A garden needs old association, old fragrances, as a home needs things that have been lived with.
The Rosa Annual 1928
Gather therefore the rose, whilst yet is prime. Edmund Spenser (1553-1599) English poet.
The Rose is the most beautiful of flowers. Anacreon
Rose of Sharon
Rose of Jericho (In The Rose Garden, by William Paul, p. 4: what is commonly known as the Rose of Jericho is a little cruciferous plant with white flowers very different from our Roses...
In The Rose Garden p. 5, William Paul writes: Homer, the most ancient of all the profane writers, uses the Rose figuratively both in the Iliad and the Odyssey... about 2000 years have rolled away since Sappho christened it the "Queen of Flowers." Philostratus (Epistle 73), writing of this lyric poet, "Sappho was enamoured of the Rose, and bestows upon it always some distinguished praise; she likens it to the most beautiful of maidens."
[The Greeks] consecrated it to Venus, Cupid, Aurora, and also to Harpocrates, the God of Silence. It was dedicated to Venus as an emblem of beauty, and to Cupid as an emblem of love, we may conjecture wherefore it was also dedicated to the goddess of the morning; it was the symbol of youth. But beyond this, the Greeks doubtless were alive to the fact that the Rose is most beautiful at sunrise; then, newly expanded by the breath of morn, there is visible all that freshness in which consists so much of its peculiar beauty and which soon vanishes before the radiance of a summer sun.
Also, in The Rose Garden, p. 28, Sappho's poem, p. 28: Theocritus, on account of its transitoriness, compares it to the course of human life.
Paul quotes from The Bible on p. 4: Him who was to make the wilderness be glad, and the desert to blossom as the Rose...
sub rosa From The Rose Garden, by William Paul, p. 5: From its being consecrated to Harpocrates, the God of Silence, probably arose that custom practised in the north of Europe, but now almost fallen into disquietude, of suspending a Rose from the ceiling at convivial or other meetings, to signify that what transpired was of a confidential nature.
[From The Rose Garden, by William Paul, p. 10:] It has for some ages been a custom of the Roman Catholic Church for the Pope to consecrate a golden Rose and send it to the monarch of some state as a token of his particular esteem... the form of the Holy Rose has undergone considerable modifications. Formerly a single Rose, it is now several, and of the most superb make. It is probably worth 1000 Pounds Sterling.
[From The Rose Garden, by William Paul, p. 13:] The seal of the celebrated Luther was a Rose.
... the scent of the rose is enough to imbue a woman with wordless, sibylline poetry, as if she were younger by ten centuries... Colette
[From The Rose, by Madison Mallone, p. 11:] It is the only flower whose name can be rearranged to spell Eros, the god of love.
But I send you a cream-white rosebud
With a flush on its petal tips,
For the love that is present and sweetest
Has a kiss od desire on the lips. John Boyle O'Reilly
Red roses mean "I love you", respect, courage, blood of Christ... [From The Rose, by Madison Mallone, p. 74:] Red roses were planted [at graves] to honor good works, they were also frequently placed on the graves of dead lovers.
Burgundy: hidden beauty
Red and White roses: unity
White: secrecy or confidentiality (subrosa -- during Medieval times, a conversation conducted beneath a white rose indicated the conversation must be private), purity... [From The Rose, by Madison Mallone, p. 73:] In the sixteenth century, the Pope declared that a rose should be carved into confessional booths to symbolize confidentiality and privacy... a bouquet of withered white roses suggests that beauty is transitory, or someone has failed to make a good impression... [From The Rose, by Madison Mallone, pp. 73-74:] The Romans planted a white rose-bush on the burial sites of young women to symbolize their virginity and purity.
Yellow: joy, gladness [From The Rose, by Madison Mallone, pp. 21-23:] the King of Sweden... when he began courting his bride, Queen Silvia. He sent her a dozen yellow roses every day during their four-year romance -- 17,532 flowers! Yellow has also been linked to jealousy and infidelity
Pink: grace, gentility. [From The Rose, by Madison Mallone, p. 24:] In the Talmud, it is written that only pink roses would be allowed to blossom in Jerusalem, and thus they came to symbolize paradise.
Orange/coral: enthusiasm, desire
Deep pink: gratitude
Light pink: admiration, sympathy
Hybrid Teas: I'll always love you
rose-colored glasses
no bed of roses (struggle)
secondhand rose (something or someone inferior)
The rose is more than a beautiful and popular flower, it is a great public institution. Walter Page Wright
There should be beds of roses, banks of roses, bowers of roses, edgings of roses, baskets of roses, vistas and alleys of roses. Rev. Samuel Reynolds Hole
One of the Hindu gods, Vishnu, created his bride from rose petals
The Romans identified the rose with feminity
[From The Rose, by Madison Mallone, pp.50-52:] Cleopatra (69-30 B.C.) celebrated the rose as an aphrodisiac; when she held a banquet in honor of her lover, Mark Anthony, in 42 B.C., the floor was carpeted with two feet of rose petals. Her bed was also covered with fresh roses daily as were the beds of newlyweds in Roman times.
commonly associated with the Virgin Mary
rose windows
rosary... [From The Rose, by Madison Mallone, p. 73:] Some of the first rosary beads were carved from rosewood or fashioned out of dried rose hips.
As for the roses, you could not help feeling they understood that roses are the only flowers that everybody is certain of knowing. Hundreds, yes, literally hundreds, had come out in a single night; the green bushes bowed down as though they had been visited by archangels. Katherine Mansfield
Rose! Thou art the sweetest flower
That ever drank the amber shower;
Even the Gods, who walk the sky,
Are amorous of thy scented sigh. Thomas Moore
Let me bring you songs from the wood, poppies red & roses filled with summer rain, to heal the wounds and still the pain. Jethro Tull