Her place is now by another's side Bring flowers for the locks of the fair young bride! Bring flowers, pale flowers, o'er the bier to shed, A crown for the brow of the early dead! For this through its leaves hath the white-rose burst, For this in the woods was the violet nursed. Though they smile in vain for what once was ours, They are love's last gift bring ye flowers, pale flowers! Bring flowers to the shrine where we kneel in prayer, They are nature's offering, their place is there! With a voice of promise they come and part, THE DAISY. The origin of the DAISY in Mythology is ascribed to Belides, one of the Dryads. Vertumnus, the presiding deity over orchards, beheld her dancing, and, admiring her gracefulness, pursued her. Belides, wishing to escape Vertumnus, was changed into the little flower, called by the Latins, Bellis. The original English name was Day's Eye, of which Daisy is a corrup tion. The name is well adapted, for it truly is a watcher of the day; opening its petals at morn and closing them at eve. MONTGOMERY. But this small flower, to Nature dear, "T is Flora's page: - In every place, 2 THE ORANGE BOUGH. MRS. HEMANS. Oh! bring me one sweet orange bough, Go, seek the grove along the shore, Oh! Love's fond sighs, and fervent prayer, Then bear me thence one bough, to shed Of Portugal, and western India there, COWPER. Love shut out of the Flower Garden. MRS. LAWRENCE. Close the porch and bar the door! Bend thou here thy treacherous way. As thy wild breath wanders by;. Roses to thy bosom bound Yield their latest, sweetest sigh. Cruel boy! abjured and scorned, When yon wild-rose flaunts her flowers, (Once its garlands bound my hair,) Changed for me those sunny hours, Thou thy thorn hast planted there. Frailest woodbine, all untwined, Wanders here forlorn and free; Emblem of the maiden's mind, Who has placed her trust in thee. Passion's-flowers are past and gone; Glowed the hour or gloomed the day; Now my chastened bosom owns Wisdom's rule, and reason's sway. Leave me to my new-found peace; Sorrow still on parting waits, Hope and joy retire with thee. |