The Rose Tree

There’s a rose tree down by our spring house

Down where the grasses wave

Over it is Heaven

Under it a grave

It blooms in the sweet old springtime

It blooms in the month of May

Its blossoms of velvet are dancing

Then back with the breeze they sway.

Once a maiden sat under that rose tree

Pure and sweet as a rose wet with dew

Kind fate had let me to love her

Fate gave me the right to be true.

She blushed when I called her “Darling.”

When I whispered those words of love

Many years on earth she led me

Now she watches from above.

For many years has that rose tree

Blossomed and faded away

Yet the roses are whiter and purer

As there in the breeze they sway.

Many years have I lived on this planet

And my grandchildren play on my knee

But my heart is with her in heaven

Where soon my soul shall be.

Written by Ida May Schaffer

May 1922

Age of 16