Word: rose-leaf
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...their packets are comparatively small. Stacked up against them, the size of alps, are the letters that ought not to have been written. Oscar Wilde's salacious letter to "Bosie" (Lord Alfred Douglas), for instance, with its reference to "red rose-leaf lips," which was read aloud in court where Wilde's homosexuality was at issue. "Suppose," asked the opposing lawyer, "a man who was not an artist had written this letter, would you say it was a proper letter?" Wilde answered: "A man who is not an artist could not have written that letter." Which was true...
...long dalliance with the fretful young fop Douglas begins with besotted love notes ("My Own Boy, it is a marvel that those red rose-leaf lips of yours should have been made no less for music of song than for madness of kisses") and reaches its most wretched state in the 87-page De Profundis letter. Here Wilde, having come to terms with remorse, attempted to scourge the consistently childish Douglas into an adult assessment of his own character. The passages of confession are moving and wise; for perhaps the only time in his life, Wilde looked at himself clearly...
...rose-leaf, with a tale of love...
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