Rose Of Washington Square
Composer: Music by James F. Hanley
Lyricist: Lyric by Ballard MacDonald
Published 1920 by Shapiro, Bernstein & Co.

Comedy Version:
[Comedy Verse 1]
I'm Rosie, the queen of the models
I used to live up in the Bronx
But I wander'd from there down to Washington Square
And Bohemian Honkey Tonks

One day I met Harrison Fisher Said he
"You're like roses, the stems
I want you to pose for a picture
On the cover of Jim Jam Jems"

And that's how I first got my start
Now my life is devoted to art

[Comedy chorus]
They call me: Rose of Washington Square
I'm withering there In basement air I'm fading,
Pose, with or without my clothes
They say my Roman nose
It seems to please artistic people

Beaux I've plenty of those
With second hand clothes And nice long hair
I've got those Braodway vampires lashed to the mast
I've got no future But Oh! what a past,
I'm Rose, of Washington Square.

[Comedy Verse 2]
I'm terrible good as a model
The artists are stuck on my charms
Once a feller said he would paint
Venus from me Only Venus
ain't got no arms

Rube Goldberg my figure admires
He dresses me up in a veil
And uses my shape for the pictures
That he draws in the Evening Mail

He promised some time when he's free
That he'll model a statue of me

[Repeat Comedy Chorus]

Ballad Version
[Ballad Verse 1]
A garden that never knew sunshine
Once shelter'd a beautiful rose
In the shadows it grew without sunlight or dew

As a child of the city grows
A butterfly flew to the garden
From out of the blue sky above

The heart of the rose set a flutter
With a wonderful tale of love
He told her of birds and of bees
Of the brooks and the meadows and trees

[Ballad Version Chorus]
He whisper'd Rose of Washington Square
A flower so fair Should blossom where the sunshines Rose,
for nature did not mean That you should blush unseen
But be the queen of some fair garden

Rose I'll never depart But dwell in your heart
Your love to care I'll bring the sunbeams
from the heavens to you
And give you kisses that sparkle with dew,
My Rose of Washington Square.

[Ballad Verse 2]
But after the summer comes autumn
When flowers their petals must close
For the songbirds are still and the breezes are chill
To the cheek of the blushing rose

The gay butterfly's wings are folded
The heart of the rose has grown cold
A butterfly lives but a season
And a rose in a week grows old

The meadows, the brooks and the trees
Like the birds and the flowers and bees
Need sunshine

[Repeat Ballad Chorus]