Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, LOVE LETTERS MADE OF FLOWERS, by JAMES HENRY LEIGH HUNT


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

LOVE LETTERS MADE OF FLOWERS, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: An exquisite invention this
Last Line: And literally, breathing bliss!
Alternate Author Name(s): Hunt, Leigh
Subject(s): Flowers; Love Letters


AN exquisite invention this,
Worthy of Love's most honeyed kiss,—
This art of writing billet-doux
In buds, and odors, 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 gathered. 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 bedewed on bush:
('T is in reply to one of ours,
Made of the most convincing flowers.)

Then, after we have kissed 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 flames, forget-me-not,
Bridewort,—in short, the whole blest lot
Of vouchers for a lifelong kiss,—
And literally, breathing bliss!





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