In the Boy Scouts, and in a human-relations camp called Anytown that I attended in June of 1971, there was a campfire song, and it’s especially compelling when sung as a round. There are at least two fine versions on YouTube, and I invite you to go from this post to a search for the video version of “Rose Red” to enhance your listening pleasure.

It has changed over the centuries. In its original form the word “marry” is short for “by the Virgin Mary” and means “yes indeed” or “of course” or “you bet.” The word “an” is an archaic way of saying “if.” “Thoult” is a contractual form of “thou wilt.” Isn’t that lovely?

“Rose, rose, rose, rose,
Will I ever see thee red?”

“Aye, marry, that thou wilt,
An thoult but stay.”

I have quoted three other Rose songs, one made popular by Nat King Cole. The Grateful Dead did a sort of sequel. But long before that was “The Yellow Rose of Texas,” which like “Rose Red” has changed over time. For its curious history see Wikipedia.

I was tempted to excerpt Dorothy Parker’s acid poem “One Perfect Rose” on the card but a) it’s not a song b) I ran out of room. (It can be argued that I had ALREADY run out of room–this is one crowded card!) But here we are in the non-image portion of this post, and herewith as a special feature is the final stanza of Ms. Parker’s poem:

Why is it no one ever sent me yet
One perfect limousine, do you suppose?
Ah no, it’s always just my luck to get
One perfect rose.

Lastly we come to the quadruple-acrostic I composed for the image:

rose rose rose rose

river, share a rarer mirror
only show soupçons of cheer. o
slip downstream to see with sighs
every petaled fettled prize