| Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922. | | | | Rosa Nascosa | | By Maurice Hewlett (1861–1923) |
| | | MORE than those | |
| Enfranchised beauties her perfection shows, | |
| Like a concealèd rose, | |
| But to the thickets where she lieth close. | |
| |
| These libertines | 5 |
| Encompass her with hardy-visaged spines; | |
| She frets not nor repines, | |
| But does their bidding meekly, and resigns | |
| |
| Herself to be | |
| Their bond-servant, who shall be more than free | 10 |
| Having a liberty | |
| There where her soul can fear no enemy. | |
| |
| There she doth find | |
| All broad dominion and a heaven all kind, | |
| In her unravisht mind | 15 |
| Whereto her brute possessioners are blind. | |
| |
| Possession goes | |
| No deeper than the surface; there are mines | |
| Far down, whose sacred fee | |
| And golden hold no trammelling can bind. | 20 | | | |
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