Writers have long exploited the evocative quality of the color "faded rose" to suggest a sense of muted beauty and nostalgic melancholy. In descriptions of human features, for instance, a blush or a pair of lips may be compared to the gentle tint of a faded rose, lending a soft, romantic luminosity to their appearance [1, 2, 3]. This hue is equally at home in settings—library walls hung with faded rose brocades or velvety couches dyed in its subtle tone—that evoke an old-world charm and tender wistfulness [4, 5, 6]. Poets extend the metaphor to the natural world as well, painting twilight skies or delicate streaks of light with the impressionistic quality of faded roses, while even in clinical observations, hints of the color subtly underscore themes of impermanence and fragility [7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15].
- The flush vanished and left her cheeks to their true colour, that of a faded rose.
— from The Country House by John Galsworthy
- Teeth, set as close as seed-pearls, gleamed between lips which were the pink of the faded rose.
— from Angel Island by Inez Haynes Gillmore
- He did not know her face, but it was pleasant, with faded rose-leaf cheeks, and silvered hair under a shady hat.
— from The Works of John Galsworthy
An Index of the Project Gutenberg Works of Galsworthy by John Galsworthy
- I sit in a library hung with faded rose brocades and tarnished silver broideries.
— from The Passionate Elopement by Compton MacKenzie
- Faded rose-coloured couches were placed at each window; on a table in the centre lay some old books, dust on their covers.
— from The Drums of War by H. De Vere (Henry De Vere) Stacpoole
- The long outer robe was of faded rose-color and had nine stars, formed of clustered diamonds, down the front.
— from Daughters of Destiny by L. Frank (Lyman Frank) Baum
- Moon and stars were gone, and the east was dull pink, like faded roses.
— from Audrey by Mary Johnston
- Beyond that there was a strip of faded rose-pink, and then a narrow margin of white.
— from Captain Chub by Ralph Henry Barbour
- The sky above was like a faded rose.
— from The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
- The tint of faded roses came into the Fräulein’s face.
— from The Master's Violin by Myrtle Reed
- The co-existence of scaly papules and faded roseoles is very suggestive of syphilis.
— from Manual of Surgery Volume First: General Surgery. Sixth Edition. by Alexis Thomson
- It was still furnished with a velvet sofa, of which the red, once crimson, had become the faded rose colour of raspberry jam on bread.
— from En Route by J.-K. (Joris-Karl) Huysmans
- He turned to Hazel, crying in the high armchair of black oak with its faded rose-coloured cushions.
— from Gone to Earth by Mary Gladys Meredith Webb
- Certainly she was a very distinguished person, with her costly clothing, her rich furs, her white hair, and that faded rose-leaf skin.
— from Poor Man's Rock by Bertrand W. Sinclair
- The wide brow was calm and white as an ivory tablet, and the lip, like a faded rose-leaf, hinted the bright hue which it had worn in health.
— from Autobiography of a Female Slave by Martha Griffith Browne