SONNETS.

SONNETS.

I.

TO A FRIEND WHO SENT ME SOME ROSES.

A

S 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, 0 Wells ! thy roses came to me,

My sense with their deliciousness was spellid : Soft voices had they, that with tender plea Whisper'd of peace, and truth, and friendliness

unquellid.

II.

TO MY BROTHER GEORGE.

M

ANY the wonders I this day have seen :
The sun, when first he kist away the tears
That fill'd the eyes of Morn; the laurellid

peers
Who from the feathery gold of evening lean;
The Ocean with its vastness, its blue green,

Its ships, its rocks, its caves, its hopes, its fears,

Its voice mysterious, which whoso hears Must think on what will be, and what has been. E'en now, dear George, while this for you I write,

Cynthia is from her silken curtains peeping So scantly, that it seems her bridal night,

And she her half-discover'd revels keeping. But what, without the social thought of thee, Would be the wonders of the sky and sea ?