The Rose Family

Robert Frost

The rose is a rose,
And was always a rose.
But the theory now goes
That the apple’s a rose,
And the pear is, and so’s
The peach, I suppose.
The dear only knows
What will next prove a rose.
You of course are a rose—
But were always a rose.


Editors’ Note: The Yale Review is committed to publishing pieces from its archive as they originally appeared, without alterations to spelling, content, or style. Occasionally, errors creep in due to the digitization process; we work to correct these errors as we find them. You can email [email protected] with any you find.
Robert Frost was an American poet and four-time recipient of the Pulitzer Prize. He died in 1963.
Originally published:
July 1, 1927

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