It is not likely true that Robbie Burns was the first to write a rose poem. It hasn’t even been 300 years since he wrote “A Red, Red Rose, ” and surely many a poet wrote of the exquisite rose long before then. But the word luve as he writes to his bonnie lass gives the poem an other world, other time quality, and even if he wasn’t the first, he could very well be the best. With this fresh bouquet of a dozen (minus two) rose poems, it’s hard to choose a favorite. Perhaps you can take them all and arrange them in a vase.