A dying woman speaks to someone she loves, asking that after her death only red roses mark the life she lost for a man she still refuses to curse. She urges pity and forgiveness rather than blame, saying pity calms hate and forgiveness brings wisdom. Her voice is calm and selfless, more concerned with healing those left behind than with her own fate. She seems to have been destroyed by love itself—“love’s murder”—and accepts her death with strange gentleness. After she is buried beneath red roses, the seasons pass. When spring returns, every bush unexpectedly blossoms white. That change becomes a quiet miracle, as if her innocence, sacrifice, or forgiveness has transformed the red of passion or blood into something pure. The mood is mournful, tender, and slightly eerie.
The Miracle — Summary
"Dear brother, dearest friend, when I am dead, And you shall see no more this face of mine, Let nothing but red roses be the sign Of the white life I lost for him," she said; "No, do not curse him, -- pity him instead; Forgive him! -- forgive me! . . God's anodyne For human hate is pity; and the wine That makes men wise, forgiveness. I have read Love's message in love's murder, and I die." And so they laid her just where she would lie, -- Under red roses. Red they bloomed and fell; But when flushed autumn and the snows went by, And spring came, -- lo, from every bud's green shell Burst a white blossom. -- Can love reason why?