John Keats

Sonnet V. 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 excelled; But when, O Wells! thy roses came to me, My sense with their deliciousness was spelled: Soft voices had they, that with tender plea Whispered of peace, and truth, and friendliness unquelled. 'This sonnet was addressed to Charles Wells, the author of Stories After Nature, Joseph and His Brethren, and a few fugitive compositions. His great dramatic poem, Joseph and His Brethren, probably came out late in 1823 . . . . The book was left in oblivion till within the last few years. Wells, however, lived to find himself famous in 1876, on the issue of a revised edition. . . . He died at Marseilles on the 17th of February 1879, in his 78th year, having finally corrected and interpolated a copy of the new edition of his great work for some future re-edition. In Tom Keats's copy-book this sonnet is headed "To Charles Wells on receiving a bunch of roses," and dated "June 29, 1816. " In this heading the word 'full-blown' stands cancelled before roses. The only variation beyond spelling and pointing is in the last line, which is -- Whispered of truth, Humanity and Friendliness unquell'd. ' ~ Poetical Works of John Keats, ed. H. Buxton Forman, Crowell publ. 1895.