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Marianne Moore - Roses Only
Work rating: Medium

You do not seem to realize that beauty is a liability rather
   than
an asset - that in view of the fact that spirit creates form
   we are justified in supposing
  that you must have brains. For you, a symbol of the
   unit, stiff and sharp,
conscious of surpassing by dint of native superiority and
   liking for everything
self-dependent, anything an

ambitious civilization might produce: for you, unaided, to
   attempt through sheer
  reserve,  to confuse  presumptions  resulting  from
   observation, is idle. You cannot make us
  think you  a delightful happen-so. But rose, if you are
   brilliant, it
is not because your petals are the without-which-nothing
   of pre-eminence. Would you not, minus
thorns, be a what-is-this, a mere
perculiarity?  They are not proof against  a  worm, the
   elements, or mildew;
but what about the predatory hand? What is brilliance
   without co-ordination? Guarding the
   infinitesimal pieces of your mind, compelling audience to
the remark that it is better to be forgotten than to be re-
   membered too violently,
your thorns are the best part of you.
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