And the jessamine faint, and the sweet tuberose, The sweetest flower for scent that blows; And all rare blossoms from every clime Grew in that garden in perfect prime.
And on the stream, whose inconstant bosom Was prankt under boughs of embowering blossom, With golden and green light slanting through Their heaven of many a tangled hue,
Broad water-lilies lay tremulously, And starry river-buds glimmer'd by,
And around them the soft stream did glide and dance With a motion of sweet sound and radiance.
And the sinuous paths of lawn and of moss, Which led through the garden along and across, Some open at once to the sun and the breeze, Some lost among bowers of blossoming trees,
Were all paved with daisies and delicate bells As fair as the fabulous asphodels; And flowerets which, drooping as day droop'd too, Fell into pavilions, white, purple, and blue, To roof the glow-worm from the evening dew. SHELLEY.
THESE flow'rés white and red,
Such that men callen Daisies in our town; To them have I so great affection, As I said erst, when comen is the May, That in my bed there daweth me no day That I n'am up and walking in the mead To see this flow'r against the sunné spread, When it upriseth early by the morrow; That blissful sight softeneth all my sorrow; So glad am I when that I have presence Of it, to doen it all réverence.
To a Daisy, on turning one down with the Plough. WEE, modest, crimson-tipped flow'r, Thou'st met me in an evil hour; For I maun crush amang the stoure Thy slender stem;
To spare thee now is past my pow'r, Thou bonnie gem.
Alas! it's no thy neebor sweet, The bonnie lark, companion meet! Bending thee 'mang the dewy weet Wi' spreckled breast,
When upward-springing, blithe, to greet The purpling east.
Cauld blew the bitter-biting north Upon thy early, humble birth; Yet cheerfully thou glinted forth Amid the storm;
Scarce rear'd above the parent earth Thy tender form.
The flaunting flowers our gardens yield, High shelt'ring woods and wa's maun shield, But thou, beneath the random bield
O' clod or stane,
Adorns the histie stibble-field,
There, in thy scanty mantle clad, Thy snawy bosom sunward spread, Thou lifts thy unassuming head
In humble guise;
But now the share uptears thy bed,
The Wind-flower.
LODGED in sunny cleft,
WHERE the cold breezes come not, blooms alone The little wind-flower, whose just-open'd eye Is blue as the spring heaven it gazes at, Startling the loiterer in the naked groves With unexpected beauty, for the time Of blossoms and green leaves is yet afar.
BLUE Eyebright! loveliest flower of all that grow In flower-loved England! Flower, whose hedge-side gaze Is like an infant's! What heart doth not know Thee, cluster'd smiler of the bank! where plays The sunbeam with the emerald snake, and strays The dazzling rill, companion of the road Which the lone bard most loveth, in the days When hope and love are young? O come abroad, Blue Eyebright! and this rill shall woo thee with an ode.
Awake, blue Eyebright, while the singing wave Its cold, bright, beauteous, soothing tribute drops From many a grey rock's foot and dripping cave; While yonder, lo, the starting stone-chat hops! While here the cottar's cow its sweet food crops; While blackfaced ewes and lambs are bleating there: And, bursting through the briers, the wild ass stops- Kicks at the strangers-then turns round to stare- Then lowers his large red ears, and shakes his long dark hair, ELLIOTT.
LONE Flower! hemm'd in with snows as white as they, But hardier far, once more I see thee bend
Thy forehead, as if fearful to offend,
Like an unbidden guest. Though day by day, Storms, sallying from the mountain-tops, way-lay The rising sun, and on the plains descend; Yet art thou welcome, welcome as a friend Whose zeal outruns his promise! Blue-eyed May Shall soon behold this border thickly set With bright jonquils, their odours lavishing On the soft west-wind and his frolic peers; Nor will I then thy modest grace forget, Chaste Snowdrop, venturous harbinger of Spring, And pensive monitor of fleeting years!
*The Geornander Speedwell.
To the Small Celandine.*
PANSIES, lilies, kingcups, daisies, Let them live upon their praises; Long as there's a sun that sets, Primroses will have their glory; Long as there are violets, They will have a place in story: There's a flower that shall be mine, 'Tis the little celandine.
Ere a leaf is on a bush,
In the time before the thrush Has a thought about her nest, Thou wilt come with half a call, Spreading out thy glossy breast Like a careless prodigal; Telling tales about the sun, When we've little warmth, or none.
Comfort have thou of thy merit, Kindly, unassuming Spirit!
Careless of thy neighbourhood, Thou dost show thy pleasant face On the moor, and in the wood, In the lane ;-there's not a place, Howsoever mean it be, But 'tis good enough for thee.
On the Night-blooming Cereus.
As the fair flower which shuns the golden day, And blooms amidst the shades of silent night, Spreads her pale petals to the lunar ray,
And hails with balmy breath the silver light; So virtue shuns the world's applause and gaze, In secret sheds her balmy sweets abroad, Nor seeks the voice of fame, nor glory's blaze, But blooms and blossoms to the praise of God! LADY FLORA HASTINGS.
To the Fringed Gentian.
THOU blossom bright with autumn dew, And colour'd with the heaven's own blue, That openest when the quiet light Succeeds the keen and frosty night.
Thou comest not when violets lean O'er wandering brooks and springs unseen, Or columbines, in purple dress'd,
Nod o'er the ground-bird's hidden nest.
Thou waitest late, and com'st alone, When woods are bare and birds are flown, And frosts and shortening days portend The aged year is near his end.
Then doth thy sweet and quiet eye Look through its fringes to the sky, Blue-blue-as if that sky let fall A flower from its cerulean wall.
I would that thus, when I shall see The hour of death draw near to me, Hope, blossoming within the heart, May look to heaven as I depart.
Spring Flowers.
DAFFODILS,
That come before the swallow dares, and take The winds of March with beauty; violets, dim, But sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes, Or Cytherea's breath; pale primroses, That die unmarried, ere they can behold Bright Phoebus in his strength, a malady Most incident to maids; bold oxlips, and The crown-imperial; lilies of all kinds, The flower-de-luce being one!
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