| John Keats (1795–1821). The Poetical Works of John Keats. 1884. |
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| 18. To a Friend who sent me some Roses |
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| AS late I rambled in the happy fields, | |
| What time the sky-lark 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, | 5 |
| 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: | 10 |
| 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. | |
| | | See Notes. |
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