Lyric Poem · Nature

My Pretty Rose Tree

by William Blake

Reading room

1A flower was offered to me,

2 Such a flower as May never bore;

3But I said "I've a pretty rose tree,"

4 And I passed the sweet flower o'er.

5Then I went to my pretty rose tree,

6 To tend her by day and by night;

7But my rose turned away with jealousy,

8 And her thorns were my only delight.

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“My Pretty Rose Tree” by William Blake — quilloak.com/poems/my-pretty-rose-tree

Quick facts

Poem: My Pretty Rose Tree
Poet: William Blake
Length: 8 lines
Form: Lyric Poem, Short Poems
Themes: Nature, Short

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: 8 lines · 2 quatrains
Line length: Mostly 9-syllable lines.

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: William Blake1757–1827
Source record: PoetryDBMy Pretty Rose Tree by william-blake, PoetryDB transcription
Display decision: Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
Publication record: Not recorded in the imported source
Text fingerprint: SHA-256 beb5000340e2e970…
Editorial handling: Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.

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Lyric Poem Short Poems Nature Short

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