This is a delightful collection of fine art, verse and prose. It is a celebration of the joy that is inspired by the beauty of roses, translated into words and images from the world's great artists and poets. It features over 70 wonderful fine art paintings, including internationally renowned works by Renoir, Alma-Tadema, Meyer, Spence, Langer, Jensen and Rosetti. Verse and prose include extracts from works by Alfred Lord Tennyson, Louisa May Alcott, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, William Cowper, Emily Dickinson, John Keats, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and more. The rose has long been prized as the queen of flowers. For centuries it has been the inspiration of poets, the symbol of religious purity and the badge of kings. For lovers, the rose holds a unique place, symbolizing the pleasure and the pain of romance: the sharp thorns portraying the agony of loss and the soft, velvet petals the joys and delights of courtship. Cultivated as carefully by the ancient Greeks as by the European settlers of America, roses have been written about for centuries. This collection includes many classic pieces on the rose by celebrated writers from the classics, through the Middle Ages to the modern era, with extracts from Sappho to William Shakespeare and from Christina Rossetti to Walter de la Mare. The poems and prose are accompanied by beautiful period paintings and botanical illustrations of roses, making this elegantly designed volume a perfect gift for all rose lovers.