The Honeysuckle

 

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.

Whenever I see wild honeysuckle blooming in the fields and along the wooded roadsides
 here in southern New Jersey I know for certain that summer is just around the corner!

Thence to a richer growth I came,

Where, nursed in mellow intercourse,

The honeysuckle 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.

"The Honeysuckle"
(1853)
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
(1828-1882)
English poet, illustrator, painter,
and translator.  He also founded the
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848
 with his fellow Englishmen and painters
William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais.