This poem was sent to Mrs. Gibson Peacock, of Philadelphia,
who was one of Mr. Lanier's kindest and most appreciative friends.
The poet's letters to Mr. and Mrs. Peacock have recently been published
in `The Atlantic' (see `Thayer' in `Bibliography').
Of the numerous rose-compliments in English I can here specify but a few.
One of the prettiest is that by Henry Constable (`Saintsbury', p. 113):
"My Lady's presence makes the Roses red,
Because to see her lips they blush for shame."
Carew's compliment is hardly equal to his morals (`Gosse', p. 101):
"Ask me no more where Jove bestows,
When June is past, the fading rose;
For in your beauty's orient deep
These flowers, as in their causes, sleep."
Few better things have been written than this, the second stanza of Jonson's
`Drink to me only with thine eyes' (`Gosse', p. 80):
"I sent thee late a rosy wreath,
Not so much honouring thee
As giving it a hope that there
It could not withered be.
But thou thereon did'st only breathe,
And sent'st it back to me;
Since when it grows and smells, I swear,
Not of itself, but thee."*
Even more felicitous, perhaps, is Waller's `Go, lovely rose!' which is at once
a compliment and a moral (`Gosse', p. 134):
"Go, lovely rose
Tell her that wastes her time and me,
That now she knows,
When I resemble her to thee,
How sweet and fair she seems to be.
"Tell her that's young,
And shuns to have her graces spied,
That hadst thou sprung
In deserts, where no men abide,
Thou must have uncommended died.
"Small is the worth
Of beauty from the light retired;
Bid her come forth,
Suffer herself to be desired,
And not blush so to be admired.
"Then die! that she
The common fate of all things rare
May read in thee;
How small a part of time they share
That are so wond'rous sweet and fair."
Browning's `Women and Roses' should also be mentioned,
and Mrs. Browning's translation of Sappho's lovely `Song of the Rose'.
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* The fact that Jonson here translates a prose love-letter of Philostratus,
the Greek sophist, may detract from the originality but not the beauty
of his poem.
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