Marianne Moore




Roses Only

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. 
                                                      You would look, minus
thorns - like a what-is-this, a mere

peculiarity? 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 remembered too 
                                                                violently,
your thorns are the best part of you.