My vision of her etched in my memory, carried as a keepsake, a reminder of my promise to win the Rose of Upland Farm.
At every dance I searched for her, praying I could at least be her partner for a few minutes. I begged my father to approach hers, to enquire. I walked past the farmhouse often, hoping for a second glance.
When these avenues came to naught I began to believe she’d been an apparition, a tantalising trick of those beautiful red roses.
Until I saw her from my window. She’d seen my gaze, had been searching too.
Written for the Light and Shade Challenge from the following picture prompt (well, more from the quote featured, which became the title- I found the poem (available here, and below) it is the last line of and wrote something to follow on from it):
At every dance I searched for her, praying I could at least be her partner for a few minutes. I begged my father to approach hers, to enquire. I walked past the farmhouse often, hoping for a second glance.
When these avenues came to naught I began to believe she’d been an apparition, a tantalising trick of those beautiful red roses.
Until I saw her from my window. She’d seen my gaze, had been searching too.
Written for the Light and Shade Challenge from the following picture prompt (well, more from the quote featured, which became the title- I found the poem (available here, and below) it is the last line of and wrote something to follow on from it):
Image courtesy of the British Library and taken from page 115 of 'A round of days described in original poems by some of our most celebrated poets, and in pictures by eminent artists engraved by the Brothers Dalziel'
A LIFE IN A YEAR. THE OPEX WINDOW.
She had but lately come from school ;
I had not seen her when in the calm
Breath of the Summer morning cool
I took my way past the Upland Farm.
What did the Summer roses say,
That round the half- opened casement clung ?
Bed, red to their very hearts were they :
Did they tell me that I and the world were young?
Just for a moment they swayed and shook,
Parted to show me a sudden face :
Can a face alter a life ? a look
Make of the world another place ?
Just for a moment the roses shook,
And a face looked out from among them, then
Vanished but not from my heart the look,
At a window that never will shut again.
Still at the Upland Farm the rose
Blows on the wall and blooms within ;
Still in my heart it blooms and blows,
The rose I have set my life to win !
Thanks for posting the poem for us. I like the way you develop your writing from the line. It feels like an old-fashioned romance, with the dancing and the roses. The last line of your story gives us some hope that the romance can blossom between the two.
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