In riotous profusion the Sweetbrier bloomed
Amid hybrid roses so tidily groomed
Fragrant and enchanting were the roses it bore
Cruelly keen the spiked thorns that it wore. So rosy and sturdy in it's infancy
They nurtured the Sweetbrier lovingly
Pruning; trimming the wildness away
Secured to a trellis, they willed it to stay. But wild grows the bonny Sweetbrier
Untamed by shears or wire
Sadly they watched it spread through the meadow
Where it challenged the unruly Hedgerow. Oft' she gazed from the edge of the meadow
When dewy morn set the sweetbrier aglow
Impetuously it stretched out hither and yon
With fragrant pink roses newly opened at dawn. Pestilence among the Hedgerow grew rife
Infecting the Sweetbrier, slowly sapping it's life
She came to the Sweetbrier and wept at the sight
Once Vigorous and comely, ''twas now defeated by blight. With shears from her pocket she snipped here and there
''Twas all in vain, but it eased her despair
A fragile pink bud, ne'er to bloom, drooped help-
lessly forlorn
And when she reached for the bud, her heart was
pierced by a thorn.