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Lyric Poem · Nature

A Little Budding Rose

by Emily Brontë

1It was a little budding rose,

2Round like a fairy globe,

3And shyly did its leaves unclose

4Hid in their mossy robe,

5But sweet was the slight and spicy smell

6It breathed from its heart invisible.

7The rose is blasted, withered, blighted,

8Its root has felt a worm,

9And like a heart beloved and slighted,

10Failed, faded, shrunk its form.

11Bud of beauty, bonnie flower,

12I stole thee from thy natal bower.

13I was the worm that withered thee,

14Thy tears of dew all fell for me;

15Leaf and stalk and rose are gone,

16Exile earth they died upon.

17Yes, that last breath of balmy scent

18With alien breezes sadly blent!

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Quick facts

Poem
A Little Budding Rose
Poet
Emily Brontë
Length
18 lines
Form
Lyric Poem
Themes
Nature, Love, Death & Loss

Craft notes

How this poem works

Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.

Shape
18 lines · 3 sestets
Line length
Lines run 6-9 syllables (median 8), consistent with tetrameter. No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.
The poem’s silhouette — approximate syllables per line, measured from the text above. Even bars mean a measured line; ragged bars mean the poem sets its own widths.

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Text, source & rights

A traceable edition

Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.

Author record
Emily Brontë1818–1848
Source record
PoetryDBA Little Budding Rose by emily-bronte, PoetryDB transcription
Display decision
Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
Publication record
Not recorded in the imported source
Text fingerprint
SHA-256 d7b9c4c0a162b157
Editorial handling
Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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