Love-Letters Made of Flowers

An exquisite invention this,
Worthy of Love's most honied kiss,
This art of writing billet-doux
In buds, and odours, and bright hues !
In saying all one feels and thinks
In clever daffodils and pinks ;
In puns of tulips ; and in phrases,
Charming for their truth, of daisies ;
Uttering, as well as silence may.
The sweetest words the sweetest way.
How fit too for the lady's bosom !
The place where billet-doux repose 'em.

What delight, in some sweet spot
Combining love with garden plot.
At once to cultivate one's flowers
And one's epistolary powers !
Growing one's own choice words and fancies
In orange tubs, and beds of pansies ;
One's sighs and passionate declarations
In odorous rhetoric of carnations ;
Seeing how far one's stocks will reach ;
Taking due care one's flowers of speech
To guard from blight as well as bathos.
And watering, every day, one's pathos !

A letter comes, just gather'd. We
Dote on its tender brilliancy ;
Inhale its delicate expressions
Of balm and pea, and its confessions
Made with as sweet a Maiden's Blush
As ever morn bedew'd on bush,
('Tis in reply to one of ours.
Made of the most convincing flowers,)
Then after we have kiss'd its wit
And heart, in water putting it,
(To keep its remarks fresh,) go round
Our little eloquent plot of ground,
And with enchanted hands compose
Our answer, all of lily and rose,
Of tuberose and of violet.
And Little Darling (Mignonette)
Of Look at me and Call me to you
(Words, that while they greet, go through you),
Of Thoughts of F tames Forget-me-not,
Bridewort, — in short, the whole blest lot
Of vouchers for a life-long kiss,
And literally, breathing bliss.