To — , With a Rose
I asked my heart to say [1]
Some word whose worth my love’s devoir might pay
Upon my Lady’s natal day.
Then said my heart to me:
‘Learn from the rhyme that now shall come to thee
What fits thy Love most lovingly.’
This gift that learning shows;
For, as a rhyme unto its rhyme-twin goes,
I send a rose unto a Rose.
____ Philadelphia, 1876.