The Rose of Iowa
A poem on Iowa's natural beauty, honoring the wild prairie rose — Iowa's state flower since 1897.
A Poem on Iowa's Natural Beauty
Hast seen the wild rose of the West,
The sweetest child of the morn?
Its feet the dewy fields have pressed,
It's breath is on the corn.
The gladsome prairie rolls and sweeps
Like billows to the sea,
While on its breast the red rose keeps
The white rose company.
The wild, wild rose whose fragrance dear
To every breeze is flung,
The same wild rose that blossomed here
When Iowa was young.
O, sons of heroes ever wear
The wild rose on your shield,
No other flower half so fair
In love's immortal field.
Let others sing of mountain snows,
Or palms beside the sea,
The state whose emblem is the rose
The fairest far to me.
Iowa's Natural Heritage
As we reflect on our connections to Iowa's native heritage, nature, and the land, let us also remember that the state of Iowa rests on the territorial lands of the Sioux, Sauk, Meskwaki, and Ioway people.