To a Friend Who Sent Me Some Roses + 

As late I rambled in the happy fields, + 

What time the skylark shakes the tremulous dew + 

From his lush clover covert; when anew + 

Adventurous knights take up their dinted shields: + 

I saw the sweetest flower wild nature yields, + 

A fresh-blown musk-rose; ’twas the first that threw + 

Its sweets upon the summer: graceful it grew + 

As is the wand that Queen Titania wields. + 

And, as I feasted on its fragrancy, + 

I thought the garden-rose it far excell’d: + 

But when, O Wells! thy roses came to me, + 

My sense with their deliciousness was spell’d: + 

Soft voices had they, that with tender plea + 

Whisper’d of peace, and truth, and friendliness unquell’d. + 