The Last Rose of Summer

"'Tis the last rose of summer left blooming alone.

All her lovely companions have faded and gone.

No flower of her kindred, no rosebud is nigh

To reflect back her blushes and give her sigh for sigh....Thomas Moore

No, it's not a rose, but some petunias still blooming outside in my flower bed. There are other pots of flowers protected under the roof of the patio still blooming, too, even though we've had below freezing temps. It has been a lovely month.

Mom used the phrases: "You look like the last rose of summer" and "you look like something the cat drug in". I think they both meant about the same thing: I didn't look my best.

Thomas Moore was an Irish poet and balladeer. If you don't recognize The Last Rose of Summer you might remember his Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms which was used in Warners Brothers Bugs Bunny cartoons.

When I think of Thomas Moore, I think of The Meeting of the Waters which he wrote at The Vale of Avoca, part of Devils Glen in County Wicklow, Ireland. The Vale of Avoca is where the Avonmore and Beg Rivers meet to form the Avoca River.

Moore is said to have perched on the limb of a tree as he wrote "There is not in this wide world a valley so sweet, As the vale in whose bosom the bright waters meet..."

If you visit County Wicklow - The Garden County of Ireland - you can see a bust of Moore and the tree (now dead). I would like to go back to this spot again to see how my memories of it have stood up over the past fifteen years.