The complete poetical works and letters of John Keats/To a Friend who sent me Some Roses
TO A FRIEND WHO SENT ME SOME ROSES
The friend was Charles J. Wells, author of the dramatic poem Joseph and his Brethren, which was published in 1824, when it died almost at once and was recalled to life by a few words printed by D. G. Rossetti in 1863, and has since been reprinted for the curious. In Tom Keats's copy book the sonnet is dated 29 June, 1816. It is included in the volume of 1817.
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; 't was 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.