To ——, with a Rose

Sidney Clopton Lanier (1842–1881)

I asked my heart to saySome word whose worth my love’s devoir might payUpon my Lady’s natal day.

Then said my heart to me:‘Learn from the rhyme that now shall come to theeWhat 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.