I Found To-day Out Walking

I found to-day out walking
The flower my love loves best.
What, when I stooped to pluck it,
Could dare my hand arrest?

Was it a snake lay curling
About the root’s thick crown?
Or did some hidden bramble
Tear my hand reaching down?

There was no snake uncurling,
And no thorn wounded me;
’Twas my heart checked me, sighing
She is beyond the sea.