Love

The Honeysuckle

by Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1828–1882

From Collected Works, vol. I (1886)

Love

I plucked a honeysuckle where
The hedge on high is quick with thorn,
And climbing for the prize, was torn,
And fouled my feet in quag-water;
And by the thorns and by the wind
The blossom that I took was thinn'd,
And yet I found it sweet and fair.
Thence to a richer growth I came,

Where, nursed in mellow intercourse,
The honeysuckles sprang by scores,
Not harried like my single stem,
All virgin lamps of scent and dew.
So from my hand that first I threw,
Yet plucked not any more of them.

MLA

Rossetti, Dante Gabriel. “The Honeysuckle.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/rossetti_d/184/.

Chicago

Rossetti, Dante Gabriel. “The Honeysuckle.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/rossetti_d/184/.

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