1976
Youth Sings a Song of Rosebuds
Composed by 
Dorothy Rudd Moore
Dorothy Rudd Moore Text by 
Countee Cullen
Countee Cullen Sonnets on Love, Rosebuds and Death Song Collection
Audio
“Youth Sings a Song of Rosebuds” (from “Sonnets on Love, Rosebuds, and Death”)
Lisa Edwards Burrs, soprano; Stacie Haneline, piano; Naima Burrs, violin3:51
Text
Youth Sings a Song of Rosebuds by Countee Cullen
Since men grow diffident at last,
And care no whit at all,
If spring be come, or the fall be past,
Or how the cool rains fall,
I come to no flower but I pluck,
I raise no cup but I sip,
For a mouth is the best of sweets to suck;
The oldest wine’s on the lip.
If I grow old in a year or two,
And come to the querulous song
Of ‘Alack and aday’ and ‘This was true,
And that, when I was young,’
I must have sweets to remember by,
Some blossom saved from the mire,
Some death-rebellious ember I
Can fan into a fire.
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