s: The friend by friend is soon forgot in turn.


s: But somewhere is the one soul that remembers--


s: That will remember unto death's dark shore,


s: Nor can the tears of a heart-stricken mother


s: Forget the sons gone down on fields of gore.


s: One soul there is that like the weeping willow


s: Can never raise its drooping branches more.


s: Though streams the sweat in rivers downward,


s: Oft through my native land I roved before,


s: When on its mother's breast a child I spy--


s: Hope in my inmost heart doth secret cry,


s: "Boy, thou art born within a favoring time,


s: Thine eyes shall glad escape old sights of crime.


s: Free as a child, thou can'st prove all and be


s: Peasant remain,--as to thy father given--


s: Or like the eagle swing thyself to heaven!"


s: Castles in air I build! Man's spirit opes


s: Though serfdom's sad conditions left behind,


s: Yet there be countless snares of varied kind!--


s: Well! Although the people soon may rend thee,


s: Let me, oh Freedom, a welcome send thee!


s: _Written shortly after the freeing of the serfs_.


s: Tempests of heart and floods of weeping,


s: Though Time our heart's hot fires have mastered,


s: The while your blest receiver holds you,


s: How little thou with truth wert blessed,


s: All through the cold night, beating wings shadowy


s: Harkens, if cocks to the dawn be not crowing,


s: Sees all her past rising up to confront her--


s: "Woe to me sinner old! Woe! Once I cheated--


s: And in the depths of the forest strayed hidden


s: "Woe to me! Burning in hell's leaping fires


s: I took a pair of eggs once at a neighbor's--


s: "Once at the harvest at home I did linger--


s: "Light was I ever with soldiers! Yet cursing


s: "Woe to me sinner! Woe to me wretched one!


s: O Life,--so o'erflowing with sorrows untold,


s: My life, so homeless and lonely and weary,


s: Life, as an Autumn night silent and dreary--


s: Bitter in truth is thy fate 'neath the sky,


s: And as a fire of the field wilt thou die!


s: Die then--no sad falling tear will recall thee,


s: Fast will the roof of thy pine coffin wall thee,


s: Heavy the earth falls upon the sad hearted--


s: One whose home-going no fond heart is tearing--


s: One for whom no soul will sorrow despairing!


s: Hark! What a careless and jubilant singing!


s: Now the glad lark to her South-land is winging!


s: Silence, O Life full of doubting and fears,


s: Hushed first of all be the songs of men's tears!


s: Sooty black the bare wall, crock stained,


s: Groanings, coughings, children's whimper,


s: From bald and sun-parched earth it rises,


s: The night descends with sleep and coolness,


s: Yet loveless, helpless stands the birch tree--


s: And from its branches fall like tear-drops


s: Ne'er will the birch, to greet the Springtide,


s: Knowest thou the land of fragrance ardent glowing?


s: Where night sublimely sparkles on the flowing


s: Of the sea? Murmuring in starlight gleam--


s: Refulgent in the silvering moonbeams white,


s: In soft half darkness, gardens slumbering light;


s: Sunk in deep musing gaze on every side--


s: Soft pictured on the valley's verdant meadows


s: Dark cypress trees reflect their slender shadows;


s: Yet more than tropic's soft abundance thralling,


s: My stormy North-land wilderness is calling!


s: Her snowflake flocks, her gleaming midnight frosts,


s: The glory of grim forests on her coasts,


s: Green tinted Steppes with distant bluish rim--


s: The trooping clouds in heaven's spaces dim.


s: The village mean that in the valley lies,


s: The empty snow-fields' endless boundary,--


s: The changeful moods that all unbridled throng;


s: With joy now gushing forth,--with pain now ringing--


s: Unto the hearer's heart resistless singing.


s: Thou fairest picture! my breast with rapture sighs,


s: A song breaks forth to Russia's praise and glory,


s: And tears of joy, the while I muse, are flowing.


s: And jubilant the kindling heart must cry--


s: Faded the footstep of Spring from our garden,


s: Behold now, how close to us dreams are approaching--


s: Trembles and wails for a sorry defeat,--


s: All that was ours, that we once proudly boasted,


s: Fluttering clouds in their mockery close;


s: Sighing within us is silenced our singing--


s: Deceitful from heaven's fair emerald rainbow,


s: Soft borrowed glamour of moonbeams doth woo;


s: Since even you to my faith were disloyal,


s: Soon will the sunbeams last radiant shining


s: Trackless be hurled where the Autumn wind blows,


s: Slumber enmeshes my soul and the darkness--


s: Darling, accept my bunch of perfumed roses;--


s: Because in royal beauty and in freshness sweet


s: They dared to rival you,--I cut them down and bound


s: The criminals and brought them to your feet.


s: With joy in your heart and a smile on your lips


s: And do you know when your beautiful eyes


s: Were remarked, all the stars at the sight


s: Were put out and turned faint in the skies?


s: This morning they brought their complaint to the sun--


s: And sadly the sun made them answer,--"Alas!


s: The stars of beauty, the stars of purity,


s: Have whispered their wonderful tales to the flowers!


s: The satiny petals have smiled as they heard,


s: And trembled the emerald leaves 'mid their bowers.


s: But infatuate flowers deep drunken of dew


s: Repeated these tales to the light swaying breeze--


s: Rebellious winds listening swift caught them up


s: And sang them o'er earth, o'er the mountains and seas!


s: Now, as the earth under Springtime's caresses:


s: With her verdant tissue is covered once more,


s: With dreams of the stars and their radiant lore!


s: And throughout these days of my sorrow and toil,


s: Through these nights of my loneliness, darkness and rain--


s: Stars wondrous and radiant, I give back to you,


s: Entranced my heart beneath their spell--


s: Their burning beams are flashing bright,


s: In truth as o'er some grave stone leaning


s: So sultry is the hour I throw the casement wide,


s: Fall on my knees beside it in the gloom,


s: And cowering before me lies the balmy night,


s: The nightingale her plaint from a near thicket sobs,


s: With a longing for my home within me waking,


s: And the nightingales of home with their familiar song!


s: And lilacs in my childhood gardens fair!


s: How the languors of the night possess my being,


s: Restoring my lost youth on perfumed air!


s: With the greatness of God all my heart is on fire!


s: Ne'er have I sung in idle hours of dreaming,


s: With verse harmonious and sweet-voiced rhyme,


s: For each thought I have suffered and been troubled,


s: No dream creation painless from me torn,


s: The blessed lot of Poet not seldom seeming


s: Oft have I sworn to evermore keep silence,


s: But when the winds once more their strings are sweeping--


s: And in the Spring the flooding streams on-rushing


s: Must downward plunge into the vale below,


s: When from the rocky peaks' high towering summits


s: The sun's warm rays have melted off the snow.


s: Take from thy brow the laurel--cast it forth!


s: The blood-flecked thorn crown hurl away--


s: See, the Spirit of Storm with wildest commotion


s: Has to heaven's arched vaulting his coronal pressed,


s: While his heels dam the flood gates of ocean!


s: Furious storm-cloud his undulent drapery,


s: Girded round with the lightning wide flashing;


s: O'er the sea's leaden billows from his threatening hand


s: To you,--you beggars in the forests proud,--


s: To pastures free, my hasting foot returns!


s: The May is come! It smiles and laughs aloud--


s: For Love's desire, freedom's bliss, it yearns.


s: Here where the sun gleams gold through azure hours--


s: Here wrests the spirit from all bondage free,


s: The fields grown green and the syringa flowers!


s: Storms only, brought my youthful morning red,


s: And night of soul and wilderness of pains--


s: All in my breast is hushed and numb and dead,


s: The pulsing fever stopped within my veins;


s: Yet here, where Nature winds a wreath for me,


s: The arms stretch forth,--the weary glance devours--


s: The fields grow green and the syringa flowers!


s: Slumber soft,--oh thou my heart's beloved!


s: And in death alone 'neath tearless lashes


s: Shall thine eyes forever close be pressed;


s: In thy grave, no more with fevered doubting


s: In thy grave alone, thou'lt never long for


s: All that life so cruel robbed from thee.


s: Through the grass, white yet thy coffin shining--


s: O'er thy grave the cross is looming white,


s: Mournful gleaming through the cold blue night.


s: Spring across the fields will be returning


s: With her silver nightingales, ere long--


s: Through the dusky nights of silence piercing


s: And the lindens whispering, will murmur--


s: But thou--slumber soft my heart's beloved,


s: Night's sombre wings o'er me descending,


s: Above thy grave's low mound I'm bending.


s: Thou wert weeping, the teardrops shining


s: Thou hospitable old grey house,--A greeting unto thee!


s: With thy red ochre roofs,--vine trellised o'er;


s: The gardens fair laid forth in blooming luxury,


s: The fields in glinting beads of dew stretched endlessly,


s: Beneath the sun's fresh kiss a gilded floor!


s: A silvery ribbon through the flowering green--


s: Above her clay-white strand are verdant arbours seen,


s: And where the azure river's currents roam.


s: Prattling, the river lisps of love and of repose--


s: And in the distance shimmers, faintly dies;


s: A flower, secret listening as its message flows,


s: A roguish kiss of gratitude in fragrance blows,


s: While beckoning stars smile from the silent skies.


s: I greet thee, home and mother! Joys now charm anew


s: That I believed but once to me were given;


s: Thee I forsook,--and now my last expiring view


s: Turns back from fruitless conflict to thy vision true,


s: Love, no more mine, nor hope nor peace of heaven!


s: Mother and home, I greet thee! O caress thy child


s: Whom weariness, regret, despair assail--


s: With sighing of thy groves in the soft wind beguiled,


s: With sunbeams of thy Springtime smiling fair and mild,


s: And with the liquid song of nightingales!


s: Let me once only weep in the assurance blest


s: That I am not girt round with human scorn,


s: Let me but sleep once more upon thy gentle breast,


s: Forgetting in my childish, deeply-dreaming rest


s: The loss and failure of my life forlorn!


s: Though the pyre lies in ruin the fires upward sweep,


s: The string of the harp is broken but her chords still weep,


s: That milked the Cow with the crumpled horn,


s: This is the Priest, all shaven and shorn,


s: That married the Man all tattered and torn,


s: This is the Cock that crowed in the morn


s: That waked the Priest all shaven and shorn,


s: That fed the Cock that crowed in the morn,


s: R. Caldecott's                           R. Caldecott's


s: Randolph Caldecott's Painting Books. Three Volumes


s: _Each with Outline Pictures to Paint, and Coloured Examples._


s: _Containing numerous sketches in Colour and black and white._


s: LONDON. Frederick Warne & Co. & NEW YORK.


s: He caught the flies, poor little things,


s: He killed the birds, and broke the chairs,


s: And kicked and whipped him more and more:


s: And laughs to see the nice things there:


s: That, if she touched them, they would scold her.


s: They screamed for help, 'twas all in vain!


s: And arms, and hands, and eyes, and nose;


s: Their tears ran down their cheeks so fast,


s: Ran out and laughed, and waved his flag;


s: See, there they are, and there they run!


s: And legs, and arms, and heads, and toes,


s: The Story of the Man that went out Shooting


s: The hare stopped short, took aim and, hark!


s: "Oh dear!" cried she; "what shall I do?"


s: "Oh dear!" she cried, with spoon in hand,


s: And cuts their thumbs clean off--and then,


s: The great, long, red-legged scissor-man.


s: And looks quite sad, and shows his hands;


s: Glasses, plates, knives, forks, and all.


s: Through the trees and flowers and thistles!


s: Through the clouds the rude wind bore him,


s: large and characteristic choice is still possible among her


s: literary material, and this third volume of her verses is put


s: forth in response to the repeated wish of the admirers of her


s: --even rhymed, though frequently not set apart in lines.


s: Also many verses, written as such, were sent to friends in


s: letters; these were published in 1894, in the volumes of her


s: _Letters_. It has not been necessary, however, to include them in


s: exceptionally strong ones, as "A Book," and "With Flowers."


s: There is internal evidence that many of the poems were simply


s: spontaneous flashes of insight, apparently unrelated to outward


s: circumstance. Others, however, had an obvious personal origin;


s: for example, the verses "I had a Guinea golden," which seem to


s: have been sent to some friend travelling in Europe, as a dainty


s: reminder of letter-writing delinquencies. The surroundings in


s: written usually serve to explain them clearly; but in general the


s: those who apprehend this scintillating spirit.


s: NOTE. -- This poem may have had, like many others, a


s: personal origin. It is more than probable that it was


s: sent to some friend travelling in Europe, a dainty


s: reminder of letter-writing delinquencies.


s: ''T was all I had,' she stricken gasped;


s: Finite to fail, but infinite to venture.


s: Many's the gallant, overwhelmed creature


s: There's grief of want, and grief of cold, --


s: Yet blamed the fate that fractured, less


s: Proud of my broken heart since thou didst break it,


s: Proud of the pain I did not feel till thee,


s: Proud of my night since thou with moons dost slake it,


s: Not to partake thy passion, my humility.


s: Why floods are served to us in bowls, --


s: Split the lark and you'll find the music,


s: Loose the flood, you shall find it patent,


s: Now, do you doubt that your bird was true?


s: Whose nightgowns could not hide the wings,


s: To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee, --


s: They won't frown always, -- some sweet day


s: Still states, to dates that have forgot,


s: Within its precincts hopes have played, --


s: Have sobbed ourselves almost to sleep, --


s: A sickness of this world it most occasions


s: Three weeks passed since I had seen her, --


s: There's been a death in the opposite house


s: We never know we go, -- when we are going


s: We thirst at first, -- 't is Nature's act;


s: And carts went stooping round the fields


s: Bliss is but bliss, and breath but breath!


s: Unmoved, she notes the chariot's pausing


s: How orderly the kitchen 'd look by night,


s: Mine by the right of the white election!


s: Titled, confirmed, -- delirious charter!


s: Have you got a brook in your little heart,


s: Then look out for the little brook in March,


s: And the snows come hurrying from the hills,


s: I thought that such were for the saints,


s: Called to my full, the crescent dropped,


s: And instead of tolling the bell for church,


s: So instead of getting to heaven at last,


s: And thread the dews all night, like pearls,


s: Like flowers that heard the tale of dews,


s: Presentiment is that long shadow on the lawn


s: These are the days when birds come back,


s: Could she have guessed that it would be;


s: Untouched by morning and untouched by noon,


s: Sleep the meek members of the resurrection,


s: Light laughs the breeze in her castle of sunshine;


s: Pipe the sweet birds in ignorant cadence, --


s: Grand go the years in the crescent above them;


s: Worlds scoop their arcs, and firmaments row,


s: And trilled, and quivered, and shook his throat


s: How many times these low feet staggered,


s: Buzz the dull flies on the chamber window;


s: Brave shines the sun through the freckled pane;


s: Fearless the cobweb swings from the ceiling --


s: To know just how he suffered would be dear;


s: To whom he could intrust his wavering gaze,


s: To know if he was patient, part content,


s: What was his furthest mind, of home, or God,


s: Till love that was, and love too blest to be,


s: With eyes in death still begging raised,


s: We passed the school where children played,


s: Past sunrise! Ah! what leagues there are


s: "Dissolve," says Death. The Spirit, "Sir,


s: Death doubts it, argues from the ground.


s: Christ will explain each separate anguish


s: must at least have suspected it, for in a letter dated 5th


s: MY DEAR FRIEND,-- What portfolios full of verses


s: you must have! It is a cruel wrong to your "day and


s: generation" that you will not give them light.


s: If such a thing should happen as that I should outlive


s: you, I wish you would make me your literary legatee


s: and executor. Surely after you are what is called


s: "dead" you will be willing that the poor ghosts you


s: have left behind should be cheered and pleased by your


s: verses, will you not? You ought to be. I do not think


s: we have a right to withhold from the world a word or


s: a thought any more than a deed which might help a


s: evidence of having been thrown off at white heat, still more had


s: received thoughtful revision. There is the frequent addition of


s: rather perplexing foot-notes, affording large choice of words and


s: important exception, her friends have generously placed at the


s: disposal of the Editors any poems they had received from her; and


s: To what further rigorous pruning her verses would have been


s: subjected had she published them herself, we cannot know. They


s: should be regarded in many cases as merely the first strong and


s: suggestive sketches of an artist, intended to be embodied at some


s: winter of 1862. In a letter to oone of the present Editors the


s: The handwriting was at first somewhat like the delicate, running


s: Italian hand of our elder gentlewomen; but as she advanced in


s: breadth of thought, it grew bolder and more abrupt, until in her


s: latest years each letter stood distinct and separate from its


s: fellows. In most of her poems, particularly the later ones,


s: everything by way of punctuation was discarded, except numerous


s: The variation of readings, with the fact that she often wrote in


s: absolutely inevitable has been avoided. The very roughness of her


s: Like impressionist pictures, or Wagner's rugged music, the very


s: absence of conventional form challenges attention. In Emily


s: particular order of words might not be sacrificed to anything


s: virtually extrinsic; and her verses all show a strange cadence of


s: humorously, more often with weird and peculiar power; but she is


s: She had tried society and the world, and found them lacking.  She


s: Storm, wind, the wild March sky, sunsets and dawns; the birds and


s: human friends, were sufficient companionship. The coming of the


s: epoch. Immortality was close about her; and while never morbid or


s: Then there 's a pair of us -- don't tell!


s: Staring, bewildered, at the mocking sky.


s: Approached, the amber flits a little, --


s: Adored with caution, as a brittle heaven,


s: Yet persevered toward, surer for the distance;


s: Ungained, it may be, by a life's low venture,


s: The meadows mine, the mountains mine, --


s: He preached upon "breadth" till it argued him narrow, --


s: And of "truth" until it proclaimed him a liar, --


s: Simplicity fled from his counterfeit presence


s: What confusion would cover the innocent Jesus


s: Undue significance a starving man attaches


s: Far off; he sighs, and therefore hopeless,


s: Partaken, it relieves indeed, but proves us


s: Just girt me for the onset with eternity,


s: In little wealths, -- as girls could boast, --


s: Sweet debt of Life, -- each night to owe,


s: "GOING to him! Happy letter! Tell him --


s: And then you wished you had eyes in your pages,


s: You guessed, from the way the sentence toiled;


s: You could hear the bodice tug, behind you,


s: You almost pitied it, you, it worked so.


s: For it would split his heart to know it,


s: "Tell him night finished before we finished,


s: And you got sleepy and begged to be ended --


s: Tell him just how she sealed you, cautious,


s: Gesture, coquette, and shake your head!"


s: See where it hurt me, -- that 's enough, --


s: Where men made hay, then struggling hard


s: Some shook their heads, and others smiled,


s: They 're here, though; not a creature failed,


s: Then stepped straight through the firmament


s: Perhaps the kingdom of Heaven 's changed!


s: And shook their fists and gnashed their teeth.


s: They looked like frightened beads, I thought;


s: The one that could repeat the summer day


s: It sounded as if the streets were running,


s: Eclipse was all we could see at the window,


s: By and by the boldest stole out of his covert,


s: The leaves unhooked themselves from trees


s: Blazing in gold and quenching in purple,


s: It can't be summer, -- that got through;


s: There 's that long town of white to cross


s: It can't be dying, -- it's too rouge, --


s: Who, till they died, did not alive become;


s: They dropped like flakes, they dropped like stars,


s: Had notched the place that pleased him, --


s: Strange that the feet so precious charged


s: 'T is sweet to know that stocks will stand


s: One need not be a chamber to be haunted,


s: Than, moonless, one's own self encounter


s: When everything that ticked has stopped,


s: But most like chaos, -- stopless, cool, --


s: Since breaking then, since breaking then,


s: a large and characteristic choice is still possible among her


s: literary material, and this third volume of her verses is put


s: forth in response to the repeated wish of the admirers of her


s: --even rhymed, though frequently not set apart in lines.


s: Also many verses, written as such, were sent to friends in


s: letters; these were published in 1894, in the volumes of her


s: _Letters_. It has not been necessary, however, to include them in


s: exceptionally strong ones, as "A Book," and "With Flowers."


s: There is internal evidence that many of the poems were simply


s: spontaneous flashes of insight, apparently unrelated to outward


s: circumstance. Others, however, had an obvious personal origin;


s: for example, the verses "I had a Guinea golden," which seem to


s: have been sent to some friend travelling in Europe, as a dainty


s: reminder of letter-writing delinquencies. The surroundings in


s: written usually serve to explain them clearly; but in general the


s: those who apprehend this scintillating spirit.


s: NOTE. -- This poem may have had, like many others, a


s: personal origin. It is more than probable that it was


s: sent to some friend travelling in Europe, a dainty


s: reminder of letter-writing delinquencies.


s: ''T was all I had,' she stricken gasped;


s: Finite to fail, but infinite to venture.


s: Many's the gallant, overwhelmed creature


s: There's grief of want, and grief of cold, --


s: Yet blamed the fate that fractured, less


s: Proud of my broken heart since thou didst break it,


s: Proud of the pain I did not feel till thee,


s: Proud of my night since thou with moons dost slake it,


s: Not to partake thy passion, my humility.


s: Why floods are served to us in bowls, --


s: Split the lark and you'll find the music,


s: Loose the flood, you shall find it patent,


s: Now, do you doubt that your bird was true?


s: Whose nightgowns could not hide the wings,


s: To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee, --


s: They won't frown always, -- some sweet day


s: Still states, to dates that have forgot,


s: Within its precincts hopes have played, --


s: Have sobbed ourselves almost to sleep, --


s: A sickness of this world it most occasions


s: Three weeks passed since I had seen her, --


s: There's been a death in the opposite house


s: We never know we go, -- when we are going


s: We thirst at first, -- 't is Nature's act;


s: And carts went stooping round the fields


s: For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the


s: flowers appear on the earth, the time of the singing of birds is


s: come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.


s: These are thy glorious works, Parent of good!


s: Thus wondrous fair; Thyself how wondrous then!


s: Soft roll your incense, herbs and fruits and flowers,


s: In mingled clouds to HIM whose sun exalts


s: Whose breath perfumes you, and whose pencil paints.


s: embellishments which no productions of human skill can rival.


s: O flower of an earthly spring! destined to blossom in the eternal


s: That fortune, fame, power, life, have named themselves _a star_.


s: constitutionally religious, are always delighted readers of the


s: Were I, O God, in churchless lands remaining


s: Far from all voice of teachers and divines,


s: My soul would find in flowers of thy ordaining


s: the _utilities_--that the Divine Artist himself is _a lover of


s: But shows some touch, in freckle, streak or stain,


s: Their balmy odours, and imparts then hues,


s: And bathes their eyes with nectar, and includes


s: In grains as countless as the sea side sands


s: The forms with which he sprinkles all the earth.


s: George Wither has well said in commendation of his Muse:


s: Thanks to the human heart by which we live,


s: Thanks to its tenderness, its joys, and fears,


s: To me the meanest flower that blows can give


s: Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.


s: Thomas Campbell, with a poet's natural gallantry, has exclaimed,


s: Without the smile from partial Beauty won,


s: Oh! what were man?--a world without a sun!


s: They form one social shade, as if convened


s: These little "foreigners of many lands" have been so skilfully


s: acclimatized and multiplied and rendered common, that for a few


s: The red rose, is the red rose still, and from the lily's cup


s: An odor fragrant as at first, like frankincense goes up.


s: Heavens! what a goodly prospect spreads around


s: Of hills and dales and woods and lawns and spires,


s: And glittering towns and gilded streams, 'till all


s: The stretching landscape into smoke decays!


s: Happy Brittannia! where the Queen of Arts,


s: Walks unconfined, even to thy farthest cots,


s: And scatters plenty with unsparing hand.


s: And here let me put in a word in favor of the much-abused English


s: Where he was born, but where he would not die.


s: Rich is thy soil and merciful thy clime.


s: "A change came o'er the spirit of my dream."


s: When I had once more crossed the wide Atlantic--and (not by the


s: My country! and 'tis joy enough and pride


s: For one hour's perfect bliss, _to tread the grass


s: Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower."


s: I have never beheld any thing more lovely than scenery


s: characteristically English; and Goldsmith, who was something of a


s: Where lawns extend that scorn Arcadian pride.


s: It is impossible to put into any form of words the faintest


s: That from the sun-redoubling valley lift


s: Cool to the middle air their _lawny_ tops.


s: It gives the Anglo-Indian Exile the heart-ache to think of these


s: Thick strewn with silvery gems and gold,


s: Where kine, bright-spotted, large, and sleek,


s: Stand mirror'd, till their twin shapes seem,


s: (Or _thine_ or _this_) be o'er it spread.


s: But thy sweet hills their green heads show,


s: Two scraps of verse of a similar tendency shall follow this prose


s: Sheep, like small clouds touched with light,


s: Or peeping through the sheltering trees,


s: Oft their glad shouts, shrill and clear,


s: Green herbs and gushing springs in some hot waste


s: Though, grateful to the traveller's sight and taste,


s: Seem far less sweet and fair than fruits and flowers


s: That breathe, in foreign lands, of English bowers.


s: Thy gracious gift, dear lady, well recalls


s: Sweet scenes of home,--the white cot's trellised walls--


s: The trim red garden path--the rustic seat--


s: For hearts that love repose. Each spot displays


s: Some long-remembered charm. In sweet amaze


s: Of exile wakes, and sees the morning beam


s: That float o'er scenes his happy childhood knew.


s: How small a spark may kindle fancy's flame


s: And light up all the past! The very same


s: Glad sounds and sights that charmed my heart of old


s: Within, the favorite bower! I am greeted


s: With joyous shouts; my rosy boys have heard


s: A father's voice--their little hearts are stirred


s: With eager hope of some new toy or treat


s: And on they rush, with never-resting feet!


s: Gone is the sweet illusion--like a scene


s: Formed by the western vapors, when between


s: The dusky earth, and day's departing light


s: The curtain falls of India's sudden night.


s: Dear is the forest frowning o'er his head.


s: And dear _the velvet greensward_ to his tread.


s: But let us quit the open fields for a time, and turn again to the


s: That in trim gardens takes his pleasure.


s: "For the heath which was the third part of our plot--


s: As much as may be to a natural wildness.


s: Trees I'd have none in't, but some thickets made


s: And some wild vine amongst; and the ground set


s: With violets, strawberries, and primroses;


s: For these are sweet and prosper in the shade."


s: The majority of mankind, in the most active spheres of life, have


s: "Gave his brother some directions about his garden" (at Wooton


s: Surrey), "which, he was desirous to put into some form, for


s: which he was to remove a mountain overgrown with large trees and


s: thickets and a moat within ten yards of the house."


s: No sooner said than done. His brother dug down the mountain and


s: Though Evelyn dearly loved a garden, his chief delight was not in


s: Sir William Temple was so attached to his garden, that he left


s: "To see the pleasant fields, the crystal fountains,


s: And take the gentle air amongst the mountains.


s: "To walk amongst orchards, gardens, bowers, mounts, and arbours,


s: artificial wildernesses, green thickets, arches, groves, lawns,


s: rivulets, fountains, and such like pleasant places, (like that


s: Ah! happy Swains! if they their bliss but knew,


s: Whom, far from boisterous war, Earth's bosom true


s: And pour at morn from all its chambers wide


s: Of flattering visitants the mighty tide;


s: Nor gaze on beauteous columns richly wrought,


s: Or tissued robes, or busts from Corinth brought;


s: Nor their white wool with Tyrian poison soil,


s: Nor taint with Cassia's bark their native oil;


s: _Yet peace is theirs; a life true bliss that yields;


s: And various wealth; leisure mid ample fields,


s: Grottoes, and living lakes, and vallies green,


s: And lowing herds; and 'neath a sylvan screen,


s: Delicious slumbers. There the lawn and cave


s: With beasts of chase abound._ The young ne'er crave


s: A prouder lot; their patient toil is cheered;


s: Their Gods are worshipped and their sires revered;


s: And there when Justice passed from earth away


s: In beds and _curious knots_, but nature boon


s: Poured forth profuse on hill and dale and plain.


s: arrangements and divisions of flowers and flower-beds.


s: Though Bacon went not quite so freely to nature as our latest


s: Yet did he deign to light with casual glance


s: The wilds of Taste, Yes, sagest Verulam,


s: 'Twas thine to banish from the royal groves


s: And sculptured foliage; to the lawn restore


s: Its ample space, and bid it feast the sight


s: With verdure pure, unbroken, unabridged;


s: For verdure soothes the eye, as roseate sweets


s: The smell, or music's melting strains the ear.


s: With colored mirrors decked and prisoned birds.


s: But, when our step has paced the proud parterre,


s: And reached the heath, then Nature glads our eye


s: Sporting in all her lovely carelessness,


s: There smiles in varied tufts the velvet rose,


s: There flaunts the gadding woodbine, swells the ground


s: In gentle hillocks, and around its sides


s: Through blossomed shades the secret pathway steals.


s: If Heaven the grateful liberty would give


s: That I might choose my method how to live;


s: And all those hours propitious Fate should lend


s: In blissful ease and satisfaction spend;


s: Near some fair town I'd have a private seat


s: Built uniform; not little; nor too great:


s: On this side fields, on that a neighbouring wood.


s: Beyond it, blooms the garden that I love,


s: In sound of funeral or of marriage bells;


s: And sitting muffled in dark leaves you hear


s: The windy clanging of the minster clock;


s: 'Tis distance lends enchantment to the _sound_.


s: Shelley, in one of his sweetest poems, speaking of a scene in the


s: _The city's voice itself is soft_, like solitude's.


s: This our life, exempt from public haunt,


s: Find tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,


s: Sermons in stones, and good in every thing.


s: Thomas Sharp, a watchmaker, got possession of the fragments of


s: Thus, thus (and this deserved great Virgil's praise)


s: The old Corycian yeoman passed his days;


s: Th' ambassadors, which the great emperor sent


s: The reverend gardener, hoeing of his ground;


s: From his loved cottage to a throne he went;


s: And oft he stopped, on his triumphant way:


s: And oft looked back: and oft was heard to say


s: Not without sighs, Alas! I there forsake


s: Which by his own imperial hands was made,


s: I see him smile, methinks, as he does talk


s: "If I, my friends," said he, "should to you show


s: All the delights which in these gardens grow,


s: 'Tis likelier much that you should with me stay,


s: Than 'tis that you should carry me away:


s: And trust me not, my friends, if every day


s: To thank the gods, and to be thought myself almost a god,"


s: Where does the wisdom and the power divine


s: In a more bright and sweet reflection shine?


s: Where do we finer strokes and colors see


s: Upon the third day's volume of the book?


s: forwards to it with their cloven hoofs!"


s: Spot more delicious than those gardens feigned


s: Or that, not mystic, where the sapient King


s: Now nearer, crowns with her enclosure green,


s: As with a rural mound, the champaign head


s: Of a steep wilderness, whose hairy sides


s: With thicket overgrown, grotesque and wild,


s: Cedar, and pine, and fir, and branching palm,


s: A sylvan scene; and as, the ranks ascend


s: Of stateliest view. Yet higher than their tops,


s: The verdurous wall of Paradise up-sprung:


s: Which to our general sire gave prospect large


s: Into his nether empire neighbouring round;


s: And higher than that wall a circling row


s: Of goodliest trees, loaden with fairest fruit,


s: Blossoms and fruits at once, of golden hue,


s: Appear'd, with gay enamell'd colours mix'd;


s: On which the sun more glad impress'd his beams,


s: Than on fair evening cloud, or humid bow.


s: When God hath shower'd the earth; so lovely seem'd


s: That landscape: and of pure now purer air


s: Meets his approach, and to the heart inspires


s: All sadness but despair: now gentle gales,


s: Fanning their odoriferous wings, dispense


s: Native perfumes and whisper whence they stole


s: Those balmy spoils. As when to them who sail


s: Beyond the Cape of Hope, and now are past


s: Mozambic, off at sea north-east winds blow


s: Well pleased they slack their course, and many a league


s: Cheer'd with the grateful smell, old Ocean smiles.


s: Southward through Eden went a river large,


s: Nor changed his course, but through the shaggy hill


s: Pass'd underneath ingulf'd; for God had thrown


s: That mountain as his garden mould, high raised


s: Upon the rapid current, which through veins


s: Of porous earth with kindly thirst up-drawn,


s: Rose a fresh fountain, and with many a rill


s: Down the steep glade, and met the nether flood,


s: Which from his darksome passage now appears;


s: And now, divided into four main streams,


s: Runs diverse, wandering many a famous realm


s: And country, whereof here needs no account;


s: But rather to tell how, if art could tell,


s: How from that sapphire fount the crisped brooks,


s: Rolling on orient pearl and sands of gold,


s: Ran nectar, visiting each plant, and fed


s: Flowers worthy of Paradise, which not nice art


s: In beds and curious knots, but nature boon


s: Pour'd forth profuse on hill, and dale, and plain,


s: Both where the morning sun first warmly smote


s: The open field, and where the unpierced shade


s: Imbrown'd the noontide bowers; thus was this place


s: Groves whose rich, trees wept odorous gums and balm;


s: Others whose fruit, burnish'd with golden rind,


s: If true, here only, and of delicious taste:


s: Betwixt them lawns, or level downs, and flocks


s: Grazing the tender herb, were interposed;


s: Of some irriguous valley spread her store,


s: Flowers of all hue, and without thorn the rose:


s: Another side, umbrageous grots and caves


s: Of cool recess, o'er which the mantling vine


s: Lays forth her purple grape, and gently creeps


s: Luxuriant; meanwhile murmuring waters fall


s: Down the slope hills, dispersed, or in a lake,


s: That to the fringed bank with myrtle crown'd


s: Her crystal mirror holds, unite their streams.


s: The birds their quire apply; airs, vernal airs,


s: Breathing the smell of field and grove attune,


s: The trembling leaves, while universal Pan,


s: Knit with the Graces and the Hours in dance,


s: Know, all the distant din that world can keep,


s: Rolls o'er my grotto, and but soothes my sleep.


s: There my retreat the best companions grace


s: Chiefs out of war and statesmen out of place.


s: There St. John mingles with my friendly bowl


s: The feast of reason and the flow of soul;


s: And he whose lightnings pierced the Iberian lines


s: Now forms my quincunx and now ranks my vines;


s: Or tames the genius of the stubborn plain


s: Almost as quickly as he conquered Spain.


s: The poet has given us in one of his letters a long and lively


s: Thou, who shalt stop, where Thames' translucent wave


s: Shines a broad mirror through the shadowy cave,


s: Where lingering drops from mineral roofs distil,


s: And pointed crystals break the sparkling rill,


s: Approach! Great Nature studiously behold,


s: And eye the mine without a wish for gold


s: Approach--but awful! Lo, the Egerian grot,


s: Where, nobly pensive, ST JOHN sat and thought,


s: Where British sighs from dying WYNDHAM stole,


s: And the bright flame was shot thro' MARCHMONT'S soul;


s: Let such, such only, tread this sacred floor


s: Who dare to love their country, and be poor.


s: Horace Walpole, speaking of the poet's garden, tells us that "the


s: The bower of wanton Shrewsbury and love,


s: The humble roof, the garden's scanty line,


s: And Stanhope's plans unfold the soul of Pope.


s: Or the enlarger and improver might have taken his motto from


s: With lenient arts extend a mother's breath;


s: Make langour smile, and smooth the bed of death;


s: Explore the thought, explain the asking eye,


s: And keep at least one parent from the sky.


s: "My Lord has spoken justly of his lady; why not I of my mother?


s: That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream,


s: has had its interest with people in general much increased by its


s: ----An old oak whose boughs are mossed with age,


s: Shakespeare, who has spread its fame over many lands.


s: There is an old tale goes that Herne the hunter,


s: Sometime a keeper here in Windsor Forest,


s: Doth all the winter time, at still midnight,


s: Walk round about an oak, with great ragg'd horns,


s: And there he blasts the trees, and takes the cattle;


s: And makes milch cows yield blood, and shakes a chain


s: You have heard of such a spirit; and well you know,


s: This tale of Herne the Hunter for a truth.


s: "Herne, the hunter" is said to have hung himself upon one of the


s: ----Yet there want not many that do fear,


s: In deep of night to walk by this Herne's Oak.


s: Sir Philip Sidney's Oak at Penshurst mentioned by Ben Jonson--


s: That taller tree, of which the nut was set


s: At his great birth, where all the Muses met--


s: Yonder tree which stands the sacred mark


s: Yardley Oak, immortalized by Cowper, is now in a state of decay.


s: Time made thee what thou wert--king of the woods!


s: And time hath made thee what thou art--a cave


s: Live in description and look green in song.


s: Ah! friend, 'tis true--this truth you lovers know;


s: In vain my structures rise, my gardens grow;


s: In vain fair Thames reflects the double scenes


s: Of hanging mountains and of sloping greens;


s: Joy lives not here, to happier seats it flies,


s: And only dwells where Wortley casts her eyes.


s: What are the gay parterre, the chequered shade,


s: The morning bower, the evening colonnade,


s: To sigh unheard in to the passing winds?


s: So the struck deer, in some sequestered part,


s: Lies down to die, the arrow at his heart;


s: He, stretched unseen, in coverts hid from day,


s: Bleeds drop by drop, and pants his life away.


s: These are exquisite lines, and have given delight to innumerable


s: readers, but they gave no delight to Lady Mary. In writing to her


s: Essays. This fourth Epistle was addressed, as most readers will


s: Something there is more needful than expense,


s: And something previous e'en to taste--'tis sense;


s: Good sense, which only is the gift of Heaven,


s: And though no science fairly worth the seven;


s: A light, which in yourself you must perceive;


s: To build, or plant, whatever you intend,


s: To swell the terrace, or to sink the grot;


s: But treat the goddess like a modest fair,


s: Nor over dress nor leave her wholly bare;


s: Let not each beauty every where be spied,


s: Where half the skill is decently to hide.


s: He gains all points, who pleasingly confounds,


s: Surprizes, varies, and conceals the bounds.


s: _Consult the genius of the place in all_;


s: That tells the waters or to rise or fall;


s: Or helps the ambitious hill the heavens to scale,


s: Or scoops in circling theatres the vale;


s: Calls in the country, catches opening glades,


s: Joins willing woods and varies shades from shades;


s: Now breaks, or now directs, th' intending lines;


s: Paints as you plant, and, as you work, designs.


s: Still follow sense, of every art the soul;


s: Parts answering parts shall slide into a whole,


s: Spontaneous beauties all around advance,


s: Start e'en from difficulty, strike from chance;


s: Nature shall join you; time shall make it grow


s: Without it proud Versailles! Thy glory falls;


s: The vast parterres a thousand hands shall make,


s: Lo! Cobham comes and floats them with a lake;


s: Or cut wide views through mountains to the plain,


s: You'll wish your hill or sheltered seat again.


s: Sweet smiling village! Loveliest of the lawn,


s: Thy sports are fled and all thy charms withdrawn;


s: Amidst thy bowers the tyrant's hand is seen


s: _One only master grasps thy whole domain_.


s: Where then, ah! where shall poverty reside,


s: To scape the pressure of contiguous pride?


s: Thomson also calls the place a paradise:


s: Preside, which shining through the cheerful land


s: In countless numbers blest Britannia sees;


s: E'er saw such sylvan scenes; such various art


s: By genius fired, such ardent genius tamed


s: By cool judicious art, that in the strife


s: All-beauteous Nature fears to be out-done.


s: Of ordered trees should here inglorious range,


s: Instead of squadrons flaming o'er the field,


s: The happiest he! Who far from public rage


s: Deep in the vale, with a choice few retired


s: Drinks the pure pleasures of the rural life, &c.


s: Let others brave the flood in quest of gain


s: And beat for joyless months, the gloomy wave.


s: Rush into blood, the sack of cities seek;


s: Unpierced, exulting in the widow's wail,


s: The virgin's shriek and infant's trembling cry._


s: While he, from all the stormy passions free


s: That restless men involve, hears and _but_ hears,


s: At distance safe, the human tempest roar,


s: Wrapt close in conscious peace. The fall of kings,


s: The rage of nations, and the crush of states,


s: Move not the man, who from the world escaped,


s: In still retreats and flowery solitudes,


s: To nature's voice attends, from month to month,


s: And day to day, through the revolving year;


s: Feels all her sweet emotions at his heart;


s: Takes what she liberal gives, nor asks for more.


s: He, when young Spring, protudes the bursting gems


s: Marks the first bud, and sucks the healthful gale


s: Into his freshened soul; her genial hour


s: And not an opening blossom breathes in vain.


s: Such are thy beauties, Rainham, such the haunts


s: When man, imparadised, conversed with God.


s: Next to the fair ascent our steps we traced,


s: Where shines afar the bold rotunda placed;


s: Light as the fabric swells in ambient air.


s: Beneath enshrined the Tuscan Venus stands


s: And beauty's queen the beauteous scene commands:


s: The fond beholder sees with glad surprize,


s: Streams glisten, lawns appear, and forests rise--


s: Here through thick shades alternate buildings break,


s: There through the borders steals the silver lake,


s: Tell how his pleasing Stowe employs his time.


s: Or dost thou give the winds afar to blow


s: Each vexing thought, and heart-devouring woe,


s: _To turn the level lawns to liquid plains_?


s: To raise the creeping rills from humble beds


s: And force the latent spring to lift their heads,


s: That mix their flowing curls with upper air?


s: To meditate on all that's wise and good.


s: To turn the level lawn to liquid plains--


s: Lo! Cobham comes and floats them with a lake--


s: And _Cobham's groves_ and Windsor's green retreats


s: When Pope describes them have a thousand sweets.


s: "Magnificence and splendour," says Mr. Whately, the author of


s: How airy and how light the graceful arch,


s: Lyttelton family had evinced so ungenerous a feeling towards the


s: infinitely more precious than all the wine, venison, beef, or


s: A profound feeling for the beautiful is generally held to be an


s: and made capable, like some mysterious enchanter, of


s: Though nature's sternest painter, yet _the best_.


s: Though Dr. Johnson speaks so contemptuously of Shenstone's rural


s: Shalt pass without thy meed, thou son of peace!


s: Who knew'st, perchance, to harmonize thy shades


s: Still softer than thy song; yet was that song


s: To pastoral plaint, or tale of slighted love.


s: The Viscomte, though his English composition was so quaint and


s: 'Plants of his hand, and children of his care.'


s: Where vernal winds each tree's low tones awaken,


s: And buds and bells with changes mark the hours.


s: You cannot bar me of free Nature's grace,


s: Through which Aurora shows her brightening face:


s: You cannot bar my constant feet to trace


s: The woods and lawns and living streams at eve:


s: Let health my nerves and finer fibres brace,


s: And I their toys to the _great children_ leave:--


s: Of fancy, reason, virtue, nought can me bereave.


s: "Gardening is a source of much greater profit than is generally


s: Oh! there is joy and happiness in every thing I see,


s: Which bids my soul rise up and bless the God that blesses me


s: Seized and tied down to judge, how wretched I,


s: Who can't be silent, and who will not lie.


s: O Hertford, fitted or to shine in courts


s: With unaffected grace, or walk the plain,


s: Which thy own season paints; when nature all


s: How the wit brightens, how the style refines!


s: Each in a waistcoat pocket, (so that all


s: Might yet repose that could) was seen one morn


s: Eating a wondering peach from off the tree.


s: them. Over the entrance is erected a tablet on which is the


s: are familiar to all readers of English poetry.


s: Along the streams? or walk the smiling mead?


s: Or court the forest-glades? or wander wild


s: While radiant Summer opens all its pride,


s: Thy hill, delightful Shene? Here let us sweep


s: The boundless landscape now the raptur'd eye,


s: Now to the sister hills that skirt her plain,


s: Majestic Windsor lifts his princely brow


s: In lovely contrast to this glorious view


s: To where the silver Thames first rural grows


s: There let the feasted eye unwearied stray,


s: Luxurious, there, rove through the pendent woods


s: That nodding hang o'er Harrington's retreat,


s: And stooping thence to Ham's embowering walks,


s: Beneath whose shades, in spotless peace retir'd,


s: With her the pleasing partner of his heart,


s: The worthy Queensbury yet laments his Gay,


s: And polish'd Cornbury woos the willing Muse


s: Slow let us trace the matchless vale of Thames


s: Fair winding up to where the Muses haunt


s: In Twit nam's bowers, and for their Pope implore


s: The healing god, to loyal Hampton's pile,


s: To Clermont's terrass'd height, and Esher's groves;


s: Where in the sweetest solitude, embrac'd


s: By the soft windings of the silent Mole,


s: From courts and senates Pelham finds repose


s: Enchanting vale! beyond whate'er the Muse


s: O vale of bliss! O softly swelling hills!


s: On which the _Power of Cultivation_ lies,


s: And joys to see the wonders of his toil.


s: So up thy hill, ambrosial Richmond, heaves


s: Dull Maurice, all his granite weight of leaves.


s: Towards the latter part of the last century the Empress of Russia


s: I omitted when alluding to those Englishmen in past times who


s: anticipated the taste of the present day in respect to laying out


s: The English style of landscape-gardening being founded on natural


s: Art, glory, Freedom, fail--but Nature still is fair.


s: "They" (The Duke of Argyle and Jeanie Deans) "paused for a


s: moment on the brow of a hill, to gaze on the unrivalled


s: landscape it presented. A huge sea of verdure, with crossing and


s: intersecting promontories of massive and tufted groves was


s: tenanted by numberless flocks and herds which seemed to wander


s: unrestrained and unbounded through the rich pastures. The


s: Thames, here turreted with villas, and there garlanded with


s: forests, moved on slowly and placidly, like the mighty monarch


s: of the scene, to whom all its other beauties were but


s: accessaries, and bore on its bosom an hundred barks and skiffs


s: whose white sails and gaily fluttering pennons gave life to the


s: interested in the prospect when on a cloudy day the whole "sea of


s: _spiritualize_ our mountains for all the blue skies of Italy."


s: residences in the land. The grounds are truly beautiful and most


s: neighbourhood, suggested to Wordsworth the following sonnet.


s: Chatsworth! thy stately mansion, and the pride


s: Of thy domain, strange contrast do present


s: Of the wild Peak, where new born waters glide


s: Through fields whose thrifty occupants abide


s: Yet he whose heart in childhood gave his troth


s: To pastoral dales, then set with modest farms,


s: May learn, if judgment strengthen with his growth,


s: That not for Fancy only, pomp hath charms;


s: And, strenuous to protect from lawless harms


s: The extremes of favored life, may honour both.


s: The two noblest of modern public gardens in England are those at


s: They guarded her from 'the white-gloved beaux,'


s: These though unseen are ever on the wing,


s: Hang o'er the box, _and hover o'er the Ring_.


s: Her private arbors and new planted orchards


s: On this side Tiber. She hath left them you


s: And to your heirs for ever; common pleasures


s: Most poets have a painter's eye for the disposition of forms and


s: building')--is almost hidden in a rich profusion of roses and ivy


s: Mr. Justice Coleridge tells us that Wordsworth dealt with


s: shrubs, flower-beds and lawns with the readiness of a practised


s: It would have grieved Shakespeare and Pope and Shenstone had they


s: Another lady-poet has poured forth in verse her admiration of


s: The cottage and garden of the poet are not only picturesque and


s: When they had passed all those troubled ways,


s: The Garden sweet spread forth her green to shew;


s: The moving crystal from the fountains plays;


s: Fair trees, high plants, strange herbs and flowerets new,


s: Sunshiny hills, vales hid from Phoebus' rays,


s: Groves, arbours, mossie caves at once they view,


s: And that which beauty most, most wonder brought,


s: No where appear'd the Art which all this wrought.


s: So with the rude the polished mingled was,


s: Nature would craft in counterfeiting pass,


s: Mild was the air, the skies were clear as glass,


s: The trees no whirlwind felt, nor tempest's smart,


s: But ere the fruit drop off, the blossom comes,


s: This springs, that falls, that ripeneth and this blooms.


s: The leaves upon the self-same bough did hide,


s: Beside the young, the old and ripened fig,


s: Here fruit was green, there ripe with vermeil side;


s: The apples new and old grew on one twig,


s: The fruitful vine her arms spread high and wide,


s: That bended underneath their clusters big;


s: The grapes were tender here, hard, young and sour,


s: There purple ripe, and nectar sweet forth pour.


s: The joyous birds, hid under green-wood shade,


s: Sung merry notes on every branch and bow,


s: The wind that in the leaves and waters plaid


s: With murmer sweet, now sung and whistled now;


s: Ceaséd the birds, the wind loud answer made:


s: And while they sung, it rumbled soft and low;


s: Thus were it hap or cunning, chance or art,


s: The wind in this strange musick bore his part.


s: With party-coloured plumes and purple bill,


s: A wondrous bird among the rest there flew,


s: That in plain speech sung love-lays loud and shrill,


s: Her leden was like humane language true;


s: So much she talkt, and with such wit and skill,


s: That strange it seeméd how much good she knew;


s: Her feathered fellows all stood hush to hear,


s: The gently budding rose (quoth she) behold,


s: That first scant peeping forth with virgin beams,


s: Half ope, half shut, her beauties doth upfold


s: In their dear leaves, and less seen, fairer seems,


s: And after spreads them forth more broad and bold,


s: Then languisheth and dies in last extreams,


s: Nor seems the same, that deckéd bed and bower


s: Nor ere doth flourish more, but like the grass


s: Cut down, becometh wither'd, pale and wan:


s: O gather then the rose while time thou hast,


s: Short is the day, done when it scant began;


s: Gather the rose of love, while yet thou may'st


s: Loving be lov'd; embracing, be embrac'd.


s: He ceas'd, and as approving all he spoke,


s: The quire of birds their heav'nly tunes renew,


s: The turtles sigh'd, and sighs with kisses broke,


s: The fowls to shades unseen, by pairs withdrew;


s: It seem'd the laurel chaste, and stubborn oak,


s: And all the gentle trees on earth that grew,


s: It seem'd the land, the sea, and heav'n above,


s: All breath'd out fancy sweet, and sigh'd out love.


s: 'A more delightful place, wherever hurled,


s: Through the whole air, Rogero had not found;


s: Would not have seen a lovelier in his round,


s: Than that, where, wheeling wide, the courser furled


s: His spreading wings, and lighted on the ground


s: Moist meadow, shady bank, and crystal rill;


s: 'Small thickets, with the scented laurel gay,


s: Cedar, and orange, full of fruit and flower,


s: Pleached in mixed modes, all lovely, form a bower;


s: And, breaking with their shade the scorching ray,


s: Make a cool shelter from the noon-tide hour.


s: And nightingales among those branches wing


s: Their flight, and safely amorous descants sing.


s: 'Amid red roses and white lilies _there_,


s: Which the soft breezes freshen as they fly,


s: And stag, with branching forehead broad and high.


s: These, fearless of the hunter's dart or snare,


s: While, swarming in those wilds, from tuft or steep,


s: Dun deer or nimble goat disporting leap.'


s: Spenser's description of the garden of Adonis is too long to give


s: Is wicked Time; who with his scythe addrest


s: Does mow the flowring herbes and goodly things,


s: And all their glory to the ground downe flings,


s: He flyes about, and with his flaggy wings


s: Beates downe both leaves and buds without regard,


s: Ne ever pitty may relent his malice hard.


s: But were it not that Time their troubler is,


s: All that in this delightful gardin growes


s: Should happy bee, and have immortall blis:


s: For here all plenty and all pleasure flowes;


s: And sweete Love gentle fitts emongst them throwes,


s: Franckly each paramour his leman knowes,


s: There is continual spring, and harvest there


s: For both the boughes doe laughing blossoms beare.


s: And with fresh colours decke the wanton pryme,


s: And eke attonce the heavy trees they clyme,


s: Which seeme to labour under their fruites lode:


s: The whiles the ioyous birdes make their pastyme


s: Emongst the shady leaves, their sweet abode,


s: And their trew loves without suspition tell abrode.


s: There stood a stately mount, on whose round top


s: A gloomy grove of mirtle trees did rise,


s: Whose shady boughes sharp steele did never lop,


s: Nor wicked beastes their tender buds did crop,


s: And from their fruitfull sydes sweet gum did drop,


s: That all the ground, with pretious deaw bedight,


s: Threw forth most dainty odours and most sweet delight.


s: And in the thickest covert of that shade


s: Which knitting their rancke braunches part to part,


s: With wanton yvie-twine entrayld athwart,


s: Fashioned above within their inmost part,


s: That neither Phoebus beams could through them throng,


s: Nor Aeolus sharp blast could worke them any wrong.


s: And all about grew every sort of flowre,


s: To which sad lovers were transformde of yore,


s: Foolish Narcisse, that likes the watry shore;


s: To whom sweet poet's verse hath given endlesse date.


s: Is sweet and pleasing unto living sense,


s: Was pouréd forth with pleantiful dispence.


s: There the most daintie paradise on ground


s: In which all pleasures plenteously abownd,


s: The painted flowres; the trees upshooting hye;


s: The dales for shade; the hilles for breathing-space;


s: The trembling groves; the christall running by;


s: And that which all faire workes doth most aggrace,


s: The art, which all that wrought, appearéd in no place.


s: One would have thought, (so cunningly the rude


s: And scornéd partes were mingled with the fine,)


s: So striving each th' other to undermine,


s: Each did the others worke more beautify;


s: So diff'ring both in willes agreed in fine;


s: So all agreed, through sweete diversity,


s: And in the midst of all a fountaine stood,


s: Of richest substance that on earth might bee,


s: Through every channel running one might see;


s: Was over-wrought, and shapes of naked boyes,


s: Of which some seemed with lively iollitee


s: To fly about, playing their wanton toyes,


s: Whylest others did themselves embay in liquid ioyes.


s: Eftsoones they heard a most melodious sound,


s: Of all that mote delight a daintie eare,


s: Such as attonce might not on living ground,


s: Save in this paradise, be heard elsewhere:


s: Right hard it was for wight which did it heare,


s: To read what manner musicke that mote bee;


s: Birdes, voices, instruments, windes, waters all agree:


s: The ioyous birdes, shrouded in chearefull shade,


s: Their notes unto the voice attempred sweet;


s: Th' angelicall soft trembling voyces made


s: To th' instruments divine respondence meet;


s: The silver-sounding instruments did meet


s: With the base murmure of the waters fall;


s: The waters fall with difference discreet,


s: Now soft, now loud, unto the wind did call;


s: The gentle warbling wind low answeréd to all.


s: _The Faerie Queene, Book II. Canto XII._


s: Shew thee the tree, leaved with refined gold,


s: Whereon the fearful dragon held his seat,


s: That watched _the garden_ called the _Hesperides_.


s: Before thee stands this fair Hesperides,


s: With golden fruit, but dangerous to be touched


s: For death-like dragons here affright thee hard.


s: Amid the Hesperian gardens, on whose banks


s: And fruits of golden rind, on whose fair tree


s: His far extended aims, till with steep fall


s: Half his waste flood the wide Atlantic fills;


s: And half the slow unfathomed Stygian pool


s: But soft, I was not sent to court your wonder


s: With distant worlds and strange removéd climes


s: Yet thence I come and oft from thence behold


s: The smoke and stir of this dim narrow spot


s: intended destruction, may serve as a specimen of the truth of the


s: Poets lose half the praise they should have got


s: Could it be known what they discreetly blot.


s: As I have quoted in an earlier page some unfavorable allusions to


s: Without the court, and to the gates adjoined


s: A spacious garden lay, fenced all around,


s: Pomgranate, pear, the apple blushing bright,


s: The honeyed fig, and unctuous olive smooth.


s: Those fruits, nor winter's cold nor summer's heat


s: Fear ever, fail not, wither not, but hang


s: Perennial, while unceasing zephyr breathes


s: Gently on all, enlarging these, and those


s: Pears after pears to full dimensions swell,


s: Figs follow figs, grapes clustering grow again


s: Where clusters grew, and (every apple stripped)


s: The boughs soon tempt the gatherer as before.


s: There too, well rooted, and of fruit profuse,


s: His vineyard grows; part, wide extended, basks


s: In the sun's beams; the arid level glows;


s: In part they gather, and in part they tread


s: The wine-press, while, before the eye, the grapes


s: Here put their blossoms forth, there gather fast


s: Their blackness. On the garden's verge extreme


s: Flowers of all hues smile all the year, arranged


s: The lovely scene two fountains welling forth,


s: The garden-ground, the other soft beneath


s: The threshold steals into the palace court


s: Whence every citizen his vase supplies--


s: I chanc'd an old Corycian swain to know,


s: Lord of few acres, and those barren too,


s: Unfit for sheep or vines, and more unfit to sow:


s: Yet, lab'ring well his little spot of ground,


s: Some scatt'ring pot-herbs here and there he found,


s: And bruis'd with vervain, were his frugal fare.


s: With wholesome poppy-flow'rs, to mend his homely board:


s: For, late returning home, he supp'd at ease,


s: And wisely deem'd the wealth of monarchs less:


s: The little of his own, because his own, did please.


s: To quit his care, he gather'd, first of all,


s: In spring the roses, apples in the fall:


s: And, when cold winter split the rocks in twain,


s: And ice the running rivers did restrain,


s: He stripp'd the bear's foot of its leafy growth,


s: And, calling western winds, accus'd the spring of sloth


s: He therefore first among the swains was found


s: To reap the product of his labour'd ground,


s: And squeeze the combs with golden liquor crown'd


s: His limes were first in flow'rs, his lofty pines,


s: With friendly shade, secur'd his tender vines.


s: For ev'ry bloom his trees in spring afford,


s: For fruit the grafted pear tree to dispose,


s: And tame to plums the sourness of the sloes


s: With spreading planes he made a cool retreat,


s: To shade good fellows from the summer's heat


s: An excellent Scottish poet--Allan Ramsay--a true and unaffected


s: describer of rural life and scenery--seems to have had as great a


s: Where oaks have plum-trees by their side,


s: Though docks and brambles here and there


s: May sometimes cheat the gardener's care,


s: _Compared with prim cut plots and nice_,


s: _Till all looks mean, stiff and confined_.


s: I cannot say that I should wish to see forest trees and docks and


s: Through which the fragrant eglantine did spred


s: His prickling armes, entrayld with roses red,


s: Which daintie odours round about them threw


s: And all within with flowers was garnishéd


s: That, when myld Zephyrus emongst them blew,


s: Did breathe out bounteous smels, and painted colors shew


s: And fast beside these trickled softly downe


s: A gentle streame, whose murmuring wave did play


s: Emongst the pumy stones, and made a sowne,


s: Therein did often quench his thirsty head


s: And then by it his wearie limbes display,


s: (Whiles creeping slomber made him to forget


s: His former payne,) and wypt away his toilsom sweat.


s: Was shott up high, full of the stately tree


s: And made emongst themselves a sweete consórt


s: That quickned the dull spright with musicall comfórt.


s: Thus talking, hand in hand alone they pass'd


s: On to their blissful bower. It was a place


s: Chosen by the sov'reign Planter, when he framed


s: All things to man's delightful use, the roof


s: Of firm and fragrant leaf, on either side


s: Fenced up the verdant wall, each beauteous flower


s: Rear'd high their flourish'd heads between, and wrought


s: Broider'd the ground, more colour'd than with stone


s: Of costliest emblem other creature here,


s: Beast, bird, insect, or worm, durst enter none,


s: Such was their awe of man. In shadier bower


s: More sacred and sequester'd, though but feign'd,


s: Nor Faunus haunted. Here, in close recess,


s: With flowers, garlands, and sweet smelling herbs,


s: Espoused Eve deck'd first her nuptial bed,


s: In the just published Memoirs of the late James Montgomery, of


s: Sheffield, it is recorded that the poet and his brother Robert, a


s: Men of genius who have concentrated all their powers on some one


s: Than is the lily upon his stalkie greene,


s: Where ruthless Winter mocked her slumbers drear


s: And rent with icy hand her robes of green,


s: That trance is brightly broken! Glossy trees,


s: Resplendent meads and variegated flowers


s: Flash in the sun and flutter in the breeze


s: Fair shapes of pleasure haunt romantic bowers,


s: And laughing streamlets chase the flying hours.


s: Now the bright Morning star, Day's harbinger,


s: Comes dancing from the east, and leads with her


s: The flowery May, who from her green lap throws


s: The yellow cowslip and the pale primrose


s: Thus we salute thee with our early song,


s: Nor did the Poet of the World, William Shakespeare, hesitate to


s: Unless we sweep 'em from the doors with cannons


s: To scatter 'em, _as 'tis to make 'em sleep


s: Spenser duly celebrates, in his "Shepheard's Calender,"


s: With singing and shouting and iolly chere:


s: Whereto they dauncen eche one with his mayd.


s: To see those folks make such iovysaunce,


s: Tho to the greene wood they speeden hem all


s: To fetchen home May with their musicall;


s: And home they bringen in a royall throne


s: Sink into as calm a nest!         D.L.R.


s: pleasant to hear English larks from rich clover fields singing so


s: remember _Jack-in-the-Green_. Nor have I forgotten the cheerful


s: clatter--the brush-and-shovel music--of our little British


s: chimney-sweepers,--a class now almost _swept away_ themselves by


s: _machinery_. One May-morning in the streets of London these


s: With what a light heart and eager appetite did I enter the little


s: magician, Fancy, who supplies so many corporeal deficiencies and


s: Lives over each scene, and is what he beholds.


s: Now stir the fire, and close the shutters fast,


s: Let fall the curtains, wheel the sofa round,


s: And while the bubbling and loud hissing urn


s: That cheer but not inebriate wait on each,


s: wonderful how some men pertinaciously cling to care, and argue


s: Man's heart may change, but Nature's glory never;--


s: And while the soul's internal cell is bright,


s: The cloudless eye lets in the bloom and light


s: Of earth and heaven to charm and cheer us ever.


s: Though youth hath vanished, like a winding river


s: Lost in the shadowy woods; and the dear sight


s: Of native hill and nest-like cottage white,


s: 'Mid breeze-stirred boughs whose crisp leaves gleam and quiver,


s: And murmur sea-like sounds, perchance no more


s: Yet still I feel as I have felt of yore,


s: And love this radiant world. Yon clear blue sky--


s: These gorgeous groves--this flower-enamelled floor--


s: Have deep enchantments for my heart and eye.


s: Man's heart may change, but Nature's glory never,


s: Though to the sullen gaze of grief the sight


s: Of sun illumined skies may _seem_ less bright,


s: Or gathering clouds less grand, yet she, as ever,


s: Is lovely or majestic. Though fate sever


s: The long linked bands of love, and all delight


s: The radiance may return, if He, the giver


s: Of peace on earth, vouchsafe the storm to still


s: This breast once shaken with the strife of care


s: Is touched with silent joy. The cot--the hill,


s: Beyond the broad blue wave--and faces fair,


s: Are pictured in my dreams, yet scenes that fill


s: Man's heart may change, but Nature's glory never,--


s: Strange features throng around me, and the shore


s: Is not my own dear land. Yet why deplore


s: This change of doom? All mortal ties must sever.


s: The pang is past,--and now with blest endeavour


s: The common earth is here--the common sky--


s: O'er other tribes proud England's hosts may seem,


s: God's children, fair or sable, equal find


s: A FATHER'S love. Then learn, O man, to deem


s: All difference idle save of heart or mind


s: Thy duty, love--each cause of strife, a dream--


s: Thy home, the world--thy family, mankind.


s: countrymen in the East even more than usually unsusceptible of


s: The morning wakes, and through the misty air


s: In sickly radiance struggles--like the dream


s: Of sorrow-shrouded hope. O'er Thames' dull stream,


s: Whose sluggish waves a wealthy burden bear


s: From every port and clime, the pallid glare


s: Of early sun-light spreads. The long streets seem


s: Unpeopled still, but soon each path shall teem


s: And eager throngs shall meet where dusky marts


s: Resound like ocean-caverns, with the din


s: By lust of gold to thy dim temples brought


s: In happier hours have scorned the prize they sought?


s: Here Passion's restless eye and spirit rude


s: Time-struck and tenantless, here seems to brood,


s: O'er human pride departed--no rocks lower


s: O'er ravenous billows--no vast hollow wood


s: Rings with the lion's thunder--no dark bower


s: The crouching tiger haunts--no gloomy cave


s: Glitters with savage eyes! But all the scene


s: Is calm and cheerful. At the mild command


s: Of Britain's sons, the skilful and the brave,


s: Fair palace-structures decorate the land,


s: And proud ships float on Hooghly's breast serene!


s: Umbrageous woods, green dells, and mountains high,


s: And bright cascades, and wide cerulean seas,


s: Slumbering, or snow-wreathed by the freshening breeze,


s: And isles like motionless clouds upon the sky


s: In silent summer noons, late charmed mine eye,


s: Until my soul was stirred like wind-touched trees,


s: And passionate love and speechless ecstasies


s: Up-raised the thoughts in spiritual depths that lie.


s: Fair scenes, ye haunt me still! Yet I behold


s: Not all unmoved; for here our fathers bold


s: Won proud historic names in days of yore,


s: And here are generous hearts that ne'er grow cold,


s: described. I must give the introductory passage.


s: Where palm trees lined the shore in graceful ranks,


s: Of British youths and maidens, to behold


s: A witching Indian scene of light and song,


s: Crowds of veiled native loveliness untold,


s: Each streaming path poured duskily along.


s: The air was filled with the sweet breath of flowers,


s: When proud and lowly, loftiest and least,


s: Matron and Moslem maiden pay their vows,


s: And to the Moslem Jonas bent their brows.


s: _Each brought her floating lamp of flowers_, and swift


s: A thousand lights along the current drift,


s: Till the vast bosom of the swollen stream,


s: Glittering and gliding onward like a dream,


s: Seems a wide mirror of the starry sphere


s: Or more as if the stars had dropt from air,


s: And in an earthly heaven were shining here,


s: Still group on group, advancing to the brink,


s: For one pale lamp that floated out of view


s: Five brighter ones they quickly placed anew;


s: At length the slackening multitudes grew less,


s: And the lamps floated scattered and apart.


s: As stars grow few when morning's footsteps press


s: When a slight girl, shy as the timid halt,


s: Not far from where we stood, her offering brought.


s: Singing a low sweet strain, with lips untaught.


s: Her song proclaimed, that 'twas not many hours


s: Since she had left her childhood's innocent home;


s: And now with Beara lamp, and wreathed flowers,


s: To propitiate heaven, for wedded bliss had come"


s: trembling hand to the stream: and was now anxiously watching its


s: The following lines were composed on the banks of the Hooghly at


s: The shades of evening veil the lofty spires


s: Of proud Benares' fanes! A thickening haze


s: Hangs o'er the stream. The weary boatmen raise


s: Along the dusky shore their crimson fires


s: That tinge the circling groups. Now hope inspires


s: Yon Hindu maid, whose heart true passion sways,


s: To launch on Gungas flood the glimmering rays


s: Of Love's frail lamp,--but, lo the light expires!


s: Alas! what sudden sorrow fills her breast!


s: No charm of life remains. Her tears deplore


s: Shall hope's sweet vision yield her spirit rest!


s: The cold wave quenched the flame--an omen dread


s: That telleth of the faithless--_or the dead_!


s: On seeing Miss Carshore's criticism I referred the subject to an


s: The _Beara_, strictly speaking, is a Mahomedan festival. Some of


s: the lower orders of the Hindus of the NW Provinces, who have


s: borrowed many of their customs from the Mahomedans, celebrate


s: the _Beara_. But it is not observed by the Hindus of Bengal, who


s: have a festival of their own, similar to the _Beara_. It takes


s: place on the evening of the _Saraswati Poojah_, when a small


s: piece of the bark of the Plantain Tree is fitted out with all


s: the necessary accompaniments of a boat, and is launched in a


s: private tank with a lamp. The custom is confined to the women


s: who follow it in their own house or in the same neighbourhood.


s: acknowledges that his countrymen in the North West Provinces have


s: Sweet May, comes forth again with all her flowers.


s: solitary May-pole is still, however, occasionally discovered. "A


s: Then comes fair May, the fayrest mayde on ground,


s: Decked with all dainties of the season's pryde,


s: And throwing flowres out of her lap around.


s: Upon two brethren's shoulders she did ride,


s: The twins of Leda, which, on eyther side,


s: Supported her like to their Sovereign queene


s: Lord! how all creatures laught when her they spide,


s: And leapt and danced as they had ravisht beene!


s: And Cupid's self about her fluttred all in greene.


s: Fled are the frosts, and now the fields appeare


s: Re-clothed in freshe and verdant diaper;


s: Thawed are the snowes, and now the lusty spring


s: The palmes put forth their gemmes, and every tree


s: Poor Keats, who was passionately fond of flowers, and everything


s: No crowds of nymphs, soft-voiced and young and gay


s: In woven baskets, bringing ears of corn,


s: At Ghent floral festivals are held twice a year when amateur and


s: Some of the nosegays made up by "flower-girls" in London and its


s: Who have left streaks of light athwart their pages--


s: The marigold, that goes to bed with the sun,


s: And with him rises weeping these are flowers


s: Of middle summer, and I think they are given


s: For the flowers now that, frighted, thou lett'st fall


s: That come before the swallow dares, and take


s: The winds of March with beauty, violets dim,


s: But sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes,


s: Great Phoebus in his strength,--a malady


s: The crown imperial, lilies of all kinds,


s: The yellow cowslip and the _pale_ primrose


s: The poet in the manuscript of his _Lycidas_ had at first made the


s: Fletcher gives her the true parentage:--


s: In Sweden they call the Primrose _The key of May_.


s: While summer lasts, and I live here, Fidele,


s: I'll sweeten thy sad grave. Thou shalt not lack


s: The flower that's like thy face, pale Primrose, nor


s: The azured Harebell, like thy veins; no, nor


s: The leaf of Eglantine; whom not to slander,


s: Here are two more flower-passages from Shakespeare.


s: Here's a few flowers; but about midnight more;


s: The herbs that have on them cold dew o' the night


s: Are strewings fitt'st for graves.--Upon their faces:--


s: You were as flowers; now withered; even so


s: These herblets shall, which we upon you strow.


s: I hoped thou shoulds't have been my Hamlet's wife;


s: I thought thy bride-bed to have decked, sweet maid,


s: And call the vales, and bid them hither cast


s: Their bells and flowerets of a thousand hues.


s: Ye vallies low, where the mild whispers use


s: Of shades and wanton winds, and gushing brooks,


s: On whose fresh lap the swart-star sparely looks;


s: Throw hither all your quaint enamelled eyes,


s: That on the green turf suck the honied showers.


s: And purple all the ground with vernal flowers.


s: Bring the rathe primrose that forsaken dies.


s: The tufted crow-toe, and pale jessamine,


s: The white pink, and the pansy freaked with jet,


s: The musk-rose and the well-attired woodbine,


s: With cowslips wan that hang the pensive head,


s: And every flower that sad embroidery wears;


s: And daffodillies fill their cups with tears,


s: To strew the laureate hearse where Lycid lies,


s: Let our frail thoughts dally with faint surmise


s: Here is a nosegay of spring-flowers from the hand of Thomson:--


s: Fair handed Spring unbosoms every grace,


s: Throws out the snow drop and the crocus first,


s: the daisy, primrose, violet darkly blue,


s: The yellow wall flower, stained with iron brown,


s: And lavish stock that scents the garden round,


s: From the soft wing of vernal breezes shed,


s: With shining meal o'er all their velvet leaves


s: Then comes the tulip race, where Beauty plays


s: The varied colors run, and while they break


s: On the charmed eye, the exulting Florist marks


s: With secret pride, the wonders of his hand


s: Nor gradual bloom is wanting, from the bird,


s: First born of spring, to Summer's musky tribes


s: Low bent, and, blushing inward, nor jonquils,


s: Of potent fragrance, nor Narcissus fair,


s: As o'er the fabled fountain hanging still,


s: Nor broad carnations, nor gay spotted pinks;


s: Nor, showered from every bush, the damask rose.


s: With hues on hues expression cannot paint,


s: The breath of Nature and her endless bloom.


s: Here are two bouquets of flowers from the garden of Cowper


s: The scentless and the scented rose, this red,


s: And of an humbler growth, the other tall,


s: Of neighboring cypress, or more sable yew,


s: Her silver globes, light as the foamy surf


s: That the wind severs from the broken wave,


s: Now sanguine, and her beauteous head now set


s: Which hue she most approved, she chose them all,


s: Copious of flowers the woodbine, pale and wan,


s: With never cloying odours, early and late,


s: Of flowers, like flies clothing her slender rods,


s: That scarce a loaf appears, mezereon too,


s: Though leafless, well attired, and thick beset


s: With blushing wreaths, investing every spray,


s: Yellow and bright, as bullion unalloy'd,


s: The jasmine, throwing wide her elegant sweets,


s: The deep dark green of whose unvarnish'd leaf


s: Makes more conspicuous, and illumines more,


s: The bright profusion of her scatter'd stars


s: Th' amomum there with intermingling flowers


s: And cherries hangs her twigs. Geranium boasts


s: Her crimson honors, and the spangled beau


s: Ficoides, glitters bright the winter long


s: All plants, of every leaf, that can endure


s: The winter's frown, if screened from his shrewd bite,


s: Live their and prosper. Those Ausonia claims,


s: Levantine regions those, the Azores send


s: They form one social shade as if convened


s: Her breast of beauty, and each delicate bud


s: O' the season comes in turn to bloom and perish,


s: But first of all the violet, with an eye


s: Blue as the midnight heavens, the frail snowdrop,


s: Born of the breath of winter, and on his brow


s: The fox glove, in whose drooping bells the bee


s: Makes her sweet music, the Narcissus (named


s: From him who died for love) the tangled woodbine,


s: Lilacs, and flowering vines, and scented thorns,


s: And some from whom the voluptuous winds of June


s: I take a second supply of flowers from the same hand


s: (This one half blown) shall be my Maia's portion,


s: I'll give to thee for like thyself it wears


s: Its sweetness, never obtruding. For this lily


s: Where can it hang but it Cyane's breast?


s: If flowers have sense of envy.--It shall be


s: The cowslip and the yellow primrose,--they


s: Are gone, my sad Leontia, to their graves,


s: And April hath wept o'er them, and the voice


s: Of March hath sung, even before their deaths


s: The dirge of those young children of the year


s: But here is hearts ease for your woes. And now,


s: It hangs upon the stem it loves, as thou


s: Hast clung to me, through every joy and sorrow,


s: It flourishes with its guardian growth, as thou dost,


s: And if the woodman's axe should droop the tree,


s: Then he took up his garland, and did show


s: What every flower, as country people hold,


s: Expressed his grief: and, to my thoughts, did read


s: The prettiest lecture of his country art


s: _Beaumont's and Fletcher's "Philaster."_


s: Culling out flowers, which in a learned order


s: Do become characters, whence they disclose


s: Their mutual meanings, garlands then and nosegays


s: A mystic language, perfect in each part.


s: Made up of bright hued thoughts and perfumed speeches.


s: Fairies use flowers for their charactery.


s: "The meed of mighty conquerors and poets sage."


s: The second rule is, that the opposite of a particular sentiment


s: From eleven to twenty, berries are added to the ten leaves thus--


s: Rose cheeked Adonis hied him to the chase


s: Hunting he loved, but love he laughed to scorn


s: Alas, poor world, what treasure hast thou lost!


s: What face remains alive that's worth the viewing?


s: Whose tongue is music now? What can'st thou boast


s: Of things long since, or any thing ensuing?


s: The flowers are sweet, their colors fresh and trim,


s: But true sweet beauty lived and died with him.


s: The course of true love never does run smooth.


s: By this the boy that by her side lay killed


s: And in his blood that on the ground lay spilled,


s: A purple flower sprang up, checquered with white,


s: Resembling well his pale cheeks, and the blood


s: Which in round drops upon their whiteness stood.


s: She bows her head, the new sprung flower to smell,


s: And says, within her bosom it shall dwell


s: Since he himself is reft from her by death;


s: She crops the stalk, and in the branch appears


s: Green dropping sap which she compares to tears.


s: Then on the blood sweet nectar she bestows,


s: The scented blood in little bubbles rose;


s: Little as rainy drops, which fluttering fly,


s: Borne by the winds, along a lowering sky,


s: Short time ensued, till where the blood was shed,


s: Or in the filmy rind but half concealed,


s: Still here the fate of lonely forms we see,


s: The feeble stems to stormy blasts a prey


s: Their sickly beauties droop, and pine away


s: The winds forbid the flowers to flourish long


s: Which owe to winds their names in Grecian song.


s: The concluding couplet alludes to the Grecian name of the flower


s: Her lips until they're blown on by the wind


s: And gross behaviour, banished thence the fair.


s: The bold buffoon, whene'er they tread the green,


s: Their motion mimics, but with jest obscene;


s: Loose language oft he utters; but ere long


s: A bark in filmy net-work binds his tongue;


s: Thus changed, a base wild olive he remains;


s: The shrub the coarseness of the clown retains.


s: Thick new-born Violets a soft carpet spread,


s: And clustering Lotos swelled the rising bed,


s: And sudden _Hyacinths_ the turf bestrow,


s: And flaming Crocus made the mountains glow


s: Milton gives a similar couch to Adam and Eve.


s: And _Hyacinth_, earth's freshest, softest lap


s: His fair large front and eye sublime declared


s: Round from his parted forelock manly hung,


s: The youths whose locks divinely spreading


s: That wanton with the laughing summer air.


s: A similar allusion may also be found in prose.


s: "It was the exquisitely fair queen Helen, whose jacinth hair,


s: receiving richness."--_Sir Philip Sidney_


s: Like to that sanguine flower inscribed with woe.


s: All night, and never lifts an eye all day.


s: As poets feigned from Ajax's streaming blood


s: Arose, with grief inscribed, a mournful flower.


s: Keats has the following allusion to the old story of Hyacinthus,


s: Or they might watch the quoit-pitchers, intent


s: Who now, ere Phoebus mounts the firmament


s: Fondles the flower amid the sobbing rain.


s: Alphonse Karr, the eloquent French writer, whose "_Tour Round my


s: Would that the little flowers that grow could live


s: Conscious of half the pleasure that they give


s: Foolish Narcisse, that likes the watery shore


s: _Emilia_--This garden hath a world of pleasure in it,


s: _Servant_--'Tis called Narcissus, Madam.


s: _Em._--That was a fair boy certain, but a fool


s: _Ser_--That could not be to one so fair.


s: Ben Jonson touches the true moral of the fable very forcibly.


s: That beauty hath, to hear too deep a sense


s: Oh! had'st thou known the worth of Heaven's rich gift,


s: Thou would'st have turned it to a truer use,


s: And not (with starved and covetous ignorance)


s: Pined in continual eyeing that bright gem


s: The glance whereof to others had been more


s: Than to thy famished mind the wide world's store.


s: Gay's version of the fable is as follows:


s: Here young Narcissus o'er the fountain stood


s: And viewed his image in the crystal flood


s: The crystal flood reflects his lovely charms


s: And the pleased image strives to meet his arms.


s: No nymph his inexperienced breast subdued,


s: Himself alone, the foolish youth admires


s: And with fond look the smiling shade desires,


s: O'er the smooth lake with fruitless tears he grieves,


s: His spreading fingers shoot in verdant leaves,


s: Through his pale veins green sap now gently flows,


s: And in a short lived flower his beauty glows


s: Shed by the morn then newflushed bloom resign,


s: Before the parching beam? So fade the fair,


s: But one, _the lofty follower of the sun_,


s: Sad when he sits shuts up her yellow leaves,


s: Drooping all night, and when he warm return,


s: THE SUN-FLOWER (_Helianthus_) was once the fair nymph Clytia.


s: Oh! the heart that has truly loved never forgets,


s: As the sun flower turns on her god when he sets


s: The same look that she turned when he rose


s: The Jessamine, with which the Queen of flowers,


s: To charm her god adorns his favorite bowers,


s: Which brides, by the plain hand of neatness dressed--


s: Unenvied rivals!--wear upon their breast;


s: Sweet as the incense of the morn, and chaste


s: As the pure zone which circles Dian's waist.


s: The ROSE, (_Rosa_) the Queen of Flowers, was given by Cupid to


s: Harpocrates, the God of Silence, as a bribe, to prevent him from


s: betraying the amours of Venus. A rose suspended from the ceiling


s: White as the native rose, before the change


s: Which Venus' blood did on her leaves impress.


s: Flowers of all hue, and _without thorns the rose_.


s: While from her breath it sweetness found,


s: When all the westering clouds flashed out in throngs


s: All hushed and solemn, as a thought of God


s: Held them suspended,--was I not, that hour


s: The lady of the world, princess of life,


s: Mistress of feast and favour? _Could I touch


s: A Rose with my white hand, but it became


s: Leigh Hunt has a pleasant line about the rose:


s: And what a red mouth hath the rose, the woman of the flowers!


s: Their lips were four red roses on a stalk


s: That in their summer beauty kissed each other.


s: More blest, nor like this kiss hath been another


s: But when two dangling cherries kist each other;


s: Nor ever beauties, like, met at such closes,


s: Here is something in the same spirit from Crashaw.


s: Two silken sister-flowers consult and lay


s: Their bashful cheeks together; newly they


s: Peeped from their buds, showed like the garden's eyes


s: Scarce waked, like was the crimson of their joys,


s: Like were the tears they wept, so like that one


s: "Then" said the Rose, "with deepened glow


s: What grace was there the flower had not?


s: expenditure at great festivals, but I suppose that no millionaire


s: I shall close the poetical quotations on the Rose with one of


s: O how much more doth beauty beauteous seem,


s: By that sweet ornament which truth doth give.


s: The rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem


s: For that sweet odour which doth in it live.


s: The canker-blooms have full as deep a dye


s: Hang on such thorns, and play as wantonly,


s: When summer's breath their masked buds discloses;


s: But for their virtue only is their show,


s: Die to themselves. Sweet Roses do not so;


s: Of then sweet deaths are sweetest odours made:


s: And so of you, beauteous and lovely youth,


s: When that shall fade, my verse distils your truth.


s: There is a story about the origin of attar of Roses. The Princess


s: Through primrose tufts, in that sweet bower,


s: Mr. J.L. Merritt, has some complimentary lines on this flower.


s: Whose dark wreath, myrtle like, young Flora weaves;


s: Nor aught more meet to deck a fairy's bower


s: Sweet marjoram, with her like, _sweet basil_, rare for smell.


s: Tulips, like the ruddy evening streaked.


s: Bowing before that veiled and awful face


s: Like Tulip-beds of different shapes and dyes,


s: Bending beneath the invisible west wind's sighs?


s: With all his phlegm, it broke a Dutchman's heart,


s: At a vast price, with one loved root to part.


s: What though no credit doubting wits may give,


s: The fair and innocent shall still believe.


s: Believed the magic wonders that he sung.


s: All nature indeed is full of mystery to the imaginative.


s: Hang on each leaf and cling to every bough.


s: The PANSY (_víola trîcolor_) commonly called _Hearts-ease_, or


s: _Love-in-idleness_, or _Herb-Trinity_ (_Flos Trinitarium_), or


s: That very time I saw (but thou couldst not)


s: Flying between the cold moon and the earth,


s: And loosed his love-shaft smartly from his bow


s: As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts.


s: But I might see young Cupid's fiery shaft


s: Quenched in the chaste beams of the watery moon--


s: Yet marked I where the bolt of Cupid fell.


s: Before milk white, now purple with love's wound--


s: Fetch me that flower, the herb I showed thee once,


s: The juice of it on sleeping eyelids laid,


s: Upon the next live creature that it sees.


s: Fetch me this herb and be thou here again,


s: Elle ne vit qu'un jour, et ne plait qu'un moment.


s: (She lives but for a day and pleases but for a moment)


s: acquaintance; a withered thorn is weighed down with a heap of


s: Shelley calls Daisies "those pearled Arcturi of the earth"--"the


s: Then love I most these floures white and red,


s: Such that men callen Daisies in our town,


s: That in my bedde there dawneth me no daie


s: To see this floure agenst the Sunne sprede,


s: That blisfull sight softeneth all my sorrow.


s: The flaunting flowers our gardens yield,


s: High sheltering woods and wa's maun shield,


s: Who long with wants and woes has striven


s: Ev'n thou who mourn'st the Daisy's fate,


s: Till crushed beneath the furrow's weight


s: While moons and stars their courses run,


s: My last poetical tribute to the Daisy shall be three stanzas from


s: And one chance look to Thee should turn,


s: --Yon swelling downs where the sweet air stirs


s: Whose blossoms so yellow, and branches so long,


s: O'er moor and o'er rough rocky mountains are flung


s: The PRICKLY GORSE or Goss or Furze, (_ulex_) I cannot omit to


s: notice, because it was the plant which of all others most struck


s: The common, over-grown with fern, and rough


s: With prickly gorse, that shapeless and deformed


s: And dangerous to the touch, has yet its bloom


s: And decks itself with ornaments of gold,


s: And what more noble than the vernal furze


s: vallies_) is sometimes alive with its lustre.


s: If I dream of the past, at fair Fancy's command,


s: Up-floats from the blue sea thy small sunny land!


s: O'er thy green hills, sweet Jersey, the fresh breezes blow,


s: And silent and warm is the Vallée des Vaux!


s: There alone have I loitered 'mid blossoms of gold,


s: And forgot that the great world was crowded and cold,


s: Nor believed that a land of enchantment could show


s: A vale more divine than the Vallée des Vaux.


s: A few scattered cots, like white clouds in the sky,


s: Or like still sails at sea when the light breezes die,


s: And a mill with its wheel in the brook's silver glow,


s: Form thy beautiful hamlet, sweet Vallée des Vaux!


s: As the brook prattled by like an infant at play,


s: And each wave as it passed stole a moment away,


s: I thought how serenely a long life would flow,


s: By the sweet little brook in the Vallée des Vaux.


s: And watch, 'mid murmurs muttering stern,


s: We have the receipt of fern-seed; we walk invisible,


s: Ben Jonson makes a similar allusion to it:


s: Pope puts a branch of spleen-wort, a species of fern, (_Asplenium


s: Safe passed the gnome through this fantastic band


s: A branch of healing spleen-wort in his hand.


s: indefatigable collector of ferns, obligingly presented me with a


s: specimen of every variety that he had discovered in the hills and


s: I drink the cool fresh, mountain breeze--


s: Thy villas, hedge-rows, fields and trees,


s: Fate smiled,--Disease withholds his dart--


s: Raise thoughts and visions none could name,


s: I _feel_, but oh! could ne'er _pourtray_,


s: Sweet Isle! thy charms of land and wave,


s: Ships, roads, groves, gardens, mansions white,


s: Men laugh at bards who live _in clouds_--


s: How cold the heart thou couldst not please!


s: I leave thy shores--but weep the while--


s: Thus some bring leaves of henna to imbue


s: The fingers' ends of a bright roseate hue,


s: So bright, that in the mirror's depth they seem


s: Like tips of coral branches in the stream.


s: following passage from D'Israeli's _Curiosities of Literature_:--


s: His thin-wrought plume, his downy breast,


s: Th' ambrosial gold that swells his thighs.


s: His limbs;--we'll set the captive free--


s: beautiful! Its price!'--'A guinea; there was another left.' The


s: A deed of grace--a graceful gift--and graceful too the giver!


s: Rude gods in brass or gold enchant an untaught devotee--


s: Fair marble shapes, rich paintings old, are Art's idolatry;


s: The giver and the gift seem one, and thou thyself art nigh


s: When this glory of the garden greets thy lover's raptured eye.


s: There's rosemary--that's for remembrance:


s: There's rosemarie; the Arabians Justifie


s: That landscape, and of pure, now purer air,


s: Meets his approach, and to the heart inspires


s: All sadness but despair. Now gentle gales


s: Fanning their odoriferous wings, dispense


s: Native perfumes, and whisper whence they stole


s: Those balmy spoils. As when to them who sail


s: Beyond the Cape of Hope, and now are past


s: Mozambic, off at sea north east winds blow


s: Well pleased they slack their course, and many a league


s: Cheered with the grateful smell, old Ocean smiles.


s: _Lewis_    Pray take a piece of Rosemary


s: But for the lady's sake, and none of your's!


s: _Beaumont and Fletcher's "Elder Brother."_


s: The poem in which these lines are found, is entitled, '_A Nosegay


s: Indian Cupid. It is particularly sacred to Krishna.


s: DRONA.--A white flower with a very slight smell.


s: _kamini_ tree is frequently used as a garden hedge.


s: KRISHNA KELI (_Mirabilis Jalapa_.)--A small tulip shaped yellow


s: SURYJA MANI (_Hibiscus Phoeniceus_).--A small red flower.


s: How could such sweet and wholesome hours


s: Be reckoned, but with herbs and flowers?


s: Milton's notation of time--"_at shut of evening flowers_," has a


s: The sun no sooner shall the mountains touch--


s: The glow-worm shows the matin to be near


s: But look! The morn, in russet mantle clad,


s: Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern hill:--


s: Such picturesque notations of time as these, are in the works of


s: Shakespeare, as thick as autumnal leaves that strew the brooks in


s: To me, fair friend, you never can be old,


s: For as you were when first your eye I eyed,


s: Such seems your beauty still. Three winters cold


s: Have from the forests shook three summers' pride;


s: Three beauteous springs to yellow autumn turned


s: Three April's perfumes in three hot Junes burned


s: Since first I saw you fresh which yet are green.


s: His beamy chariot, let not the loud bell


s: And ere the sun with mid-day fervor glow,


s: When every broom-bush opes her yellow flower,


s: Let thy black laborers from their toil desist:


s: Nor till the broom her every petal lock,


s: Let the loud bell recal them to the hoe,


s: But when the jalap her bright tint displays,


s: When the solanum fills her cup with dew,


s: And crickets, snakes and lizards gin their coil,


s: Let them find shelter in their cane-thatched huts.


s: 'Twas a lovely thought to mark the hours


s: The seasons may be marked in a similar manner by their floral


s: "Many species of flowers are admirable barometers. Most of the


s: "I believe" says Richter "the flower clock of Linnaeus, in Upsal


s: From the eyes of the unfortunate man, who like the jalap plant


s: I could never know when it was two o'clock, because at that time,


s: --but perforated sore, and dull'd in holes


s: By worms voracious, eating through and through.


s: When noon's fierce sun the breeze hath laid,


s: Her wealth of waves through verdant shores


s: Fair scenes! where breeze and sun diffuse


s: Where brightest the bright day god shows,


s: And stirless wood, and slumbering main--


s: Fair scenes! whence envious Art might steal


s: More charms than fancy's realms reveal--


s: Untouched by noon tide's scorching rays,


s: Where small white cattle, scattered wide,