You Love the Roses so do I

by George Eliot

You love the roses — so do I. I wish
The sky would rain down roses, as they rain
From off the shaken bush. Why will it not?
Then all the valleys would be pink and white,
And soft to tread on. They would fall as light
As feathers, smelling sweet; and it would be
Like sleeping and yet waking, all at once.
Over the sea, Queen, where we soon shall go,
Will it rain roses?

 

Note: Today is the 200th birthday of the English Victorian author George Eliot, who was born on this day in 1819.

George Eliot was the pen name for a woman named Mary Ann Evans, and her many works like Silas Marner and Middlemarch are packed with images from the garden.

To Mary Ann, plants were the perfect representation of faith - both required care and feeding to grow and flourish.

My favorite quotes from Eliot are about her love of roses. This concept of raining roses was something Eliot wrote about several times.


As featured on
The Daily Gardener podcast:

Words inspired by the garden are the sweetest, most beautiful words of all.
George Eliot
George Eliot

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