by Keats · Cluster: Rose · Desire · Value and Scarcity
Abstract
Sonnet on a gift of roses whose fragrance whispers peace and friendliness; the rose as emblem of friendship and reconciliation in a nature setting.
Connections
Motifs: Rose, Flowers, Nature Themes & Concepts: Friendship Forms & Genres: Sonnet
Testo integrale / Full text
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,
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.