by Coleridge · Cluster: Rose · Desire · Value and Scarcity

Abstract

A mock-sentimental lyric likening a corn (foot bump) on Angelina’s toe to a rose with a thorn, plus a punning epigram on Mr. Baker the buck; parody of sentimental verse using the rose-and-thorn motif.

Connections

Motifs: Rose Themes & Concepts: Satire of Society, Romantic Love Forms & Genres: Parody, Lyric

Testo integrale / Full text

The rose that blushes like the morn,
Bedecks the valleys low;
And so dost thou, sweet infant corn,
My Angelina’s toe.
But on the rose there grows a thorn
That breeds disastrous woe;
And so dost thou, remorseless corn,
On Angelina’s toe.
First published in Lit. Rem., i. 59. First collected P. and D. W.,
1877, ii. 366.
So Mr. Baker heart did pluck —
And did a-courting go!
And Mr. Baker is a buck;
For why? he needs the doe.
First published in Letters, Conversations, &c., 1836, ii. 21. First
collected in P. and D. W., 1877, ii. 373.