The shape will vanish, and behold! I see thee glittering from afar,— In heaven above thee! Yet like a star, with glittering crest, Sweet flower! for by that name at last, I call thee, and to that cleave fast,— That breath'st with me in sun and air, WORDSWORTH. BUTTERCUPS AND DAISIES. PUTTERCUPS and daisies- To tell of sunny hours. While the trees are leafless, While the fields are bare, Buttercups and dasies Spring up here and there. Buttercups and Daisies. Ere the snow-drop peepeth; Ere the crocus bold; Ere the early primrose Opes its paly gold Somewhere on a sunny bank Buttercups are bright! Somewhere 'mong the frozen grass Peeps the daisy white. Little hardy flowers Like to children poor, Playing in their sturdy health, What to them is weather! What are stormy showers! Buttercups and daisies Are these human flowers! He who gave them hardship And a life of care, Gave them likewise hardy strength, And patient hearts to bear. Welcome yellow buttercups, Welcome daisies white, Ye are in my spirit Visioned a delight! Coming ere the spring-time Speaking to our hearts of Him Who doeth all things well. 233 MARY HOWITT. VIOLETS. NDER the green hedges after the snow, Hiding their modest and beautiful heads Under the hawthorn in soft mossy beds. Sweet as the roses, and blue as the sky, Down there do the dear little violets lie; Hiding their heads where they scarce may be seen, F. MOULTRIE. THE LILIES OF THE FIELD. LOWERS! when the Saviour's calm benignant eye; That heavenly lesson for all hearts he drew, Eternal, universal, as the sky; Then, in the bosom of your purity A voice he set as in a temple-shrine, That life's quick travellers ne'er might pass you by, Unwarned of that sweet oracle divine. And though too oft its low, celestial sound, By the harsh notes of work-day care is drowned, Mightier to reach the soul in thought's hushed hour, HEMANS. The Rose. 235 TO DAFFODILS. RAIR daffodils we weep to see As yet the early rising sun Has not attained his noon : Until the hastening day Has run But to the even song; And having prayed together, we We have short time to stay, as you; As quick a growth to meet decay As you, or any thing: HE rose had been washed, just washed in a shower, Which Mary to Anna conveyed, The plentiful moisture encumbered the flower, And weighed down its beautiful head. The cup was all filled, and the leaves were all wet, And it seemed to a fanciful view, To weep for the buds it had left, with regret, I hastily seized it, unfit as it was For a nosegay, so dripping and drowned, And such, I exclaimed, is the pitiless part Regardless of wringing and breaking a heart This elegant rose, had I shaken it less, Might have bloomed with its owner a while; And the tear that is wiped, with a little address, May be followed perhaps by a smile. Cowper. THE MOSS ROSE. HE angel of the flowers one day, That spirit to whose charge is given The angel whispered to the rose,- |