about forty yards distant from him; and, when I had nearly reached the spot, he swam to land, with a lily in his mouth, which he came and laid at my feet." W. CowPER to Lady Hesketh, June 27th, 1788. FLOWERS. We are the sweet flowers, Born of sunny showers, (Think, whene'er you see us, what our beauty saith ;) Of some unknown delight, We fill the air with pleasure, by our simple breath: We befit all places : Unto sorrow we give smiles-and unto graces, races Mark our ways, how noiseless All, and sweetly voiceless, Though the March-winds pipe, to make our passage clear; Where our small seed dwells, Nor is known the moment green, when our tips appear. We thread the earth in silence, In silence build our bowers And leaf by leaf in silence show, till we laugh a-top, sweet flowers. The dear lumpish baby, Humming with the May-bee, Hails us with his bright star, stumbling through the grass; The honey-dropping moon, On a night in June, Kisses our pale pathway leaves, that felt the bridegroom pass. Age, the wither'd clinger, On us mutely gazes, And wraps the thought of his last bed in his childhood's daisies. See (and scorn all duller Taste) how heav'n loves color; How great Nature, clearly, joys in red and green; What sweet thoughts she thinks Of violets and pinks, And a thousand flushing hues, made solely to be seen: See her whitest lilies Chill the silver showers, And what a red mouth is her rose, the woman of her flowers. Uselessness divinest, Of a use the finest, Painteth us, the teachers of the end of use; Travelers, weary eyed, Bless us, far and wide; Unto sick and prison'd thoughts we give sudden truce : Loves its sickliest planting, But its wall speaks loftier truth than Babylonian vaunting. Sagest yet the uses, Mix'd with our sweet juices, Whether man or May-fly, profit of the balm, As fair fingers heal'd Knights from the olden field We hold cups of mightiest force to give the wildest calm. Hath its plea for blooming; Life it gives to reverent lips, though death to the presuming. And oh! our sweet soul-taker, That thief, the honey maker, What a house hath he, by the thymy glen! In his talking rooms How the feasting fumes, Till the gold cups overflow to the mouths of men! The butterflies come aping Those fine thieves of ours, And flutter round our rifled tops, like tickled flowers with flowers. See those tops, how beauteous! What fair service duteous Round some idol waits, as on their lord the Nine Elfin court 'twould seem; And taught, perchance, that dream Which the old Greek mountain dreamt, upon nights divine. To expound such wonder Human speech avails not; Yet there dies no poorest weed, that such a glory exhales not. Think of all these treasures, Every one a marvel, more than thought can say; Then think in what bright showers We thicken fields and bowers, And with what heaps of sweetness half stifle wanton May : Think of the mossy forests By the bee-birds haunted, And all those Amazonian plains, lone lying as enchanted. Trees themselves are ours; Fruits are born of flowers; Peach, and roughest nut, were blossoms in the spring; The lusty bee knows well The news, and comes pell-mell, And dances in the gloomy thicks with darksome antheming. Of planet-pressing ocean, We wash our smiling cheeks in peace-a thought for meek devotion. Tears of Phoebus-missings Of Cytherea's kissings, Have in us been found, and wise men find them still; Drooping grace unfurls Still Hyacinthus' curls, And Narcissus loves himself in the selfish rill: Thy red lip, Adonis, Still is wet with morning; And the step, that bled for thee, the rosy brier adorning. O! true things are fables, Fit for sagest tables, And the flowers are true things-yet no fables they; Fables were not more Bright, nor loved of yore Yet they grew not, like the flowers, by every old pathway: Grossest hand can test us: Fools may prize us never : Yet we rise, and rise, and rise-marvels sweet for ever. Who shall say, that flowers Dress not heaven's own bowers? Who its love, without us, can fancy-or sweet floor? Who shall even dare To say, we sprang not there And came not down that Love might bring one piece of heaven the more? O pray believe that angels From those blue dominions, Brought us in their white laps down, 'twixt their golden pinions LEIGH HUNT. ALPINE FLOWERS. Meek dwellers 'mid yon terror-stricken cliffs! -Tree nor shrub Dare that drear atmosphere; no polar pine O'er slippery steeps, or, trembling, treads the verge And marks ye in your placid loveliness- LYDIA H. SIGOURNEY. TO THE BRAMBLE FLOWER. Thy fruit full well the schoolboy knows, So, put thou forth thy small white rose; I love it for his sake. Though woodbines flaunt and roses glow O'er all the fragrant bowers, Thy satin-threaded flowers; For dull the eye, the heart is dull That can not feel how fair, Amid all beauty, beautiful How delicate thy gauzy frill! A sweet air lifts the little bough, Hath laid her weary head; But thou, wild bramble! back dost bring, In all their beauteous power, The fresh green days of life's fair spring, Scorn'd bramble of the brake! once more Thou bidd'st me be a boy, To rove with thee the woodlands o'er, In freedom and in joy. EBENEZER ELLIOTT. THE PAINTED CUP. The fresh savannas of the Sagamon, Now, if thou art a poet, tell me not The faded fancies of an elder world; But leave these scarlet cups to spotted moths |