The following poem by Robert Herrick, entitled "Farewell Frost; or, Welcome Spring," is very descriptive, though not remarkable for the peculiar melody of sound usually found in his short, but sweet writings. Fled are the frosts, and now the fields appeare Thawed are the snowes, and now the lusty spring The palmes put forth their gemmes, Now swaggers in her leavy gallantry. and every tree The while the Daulian minstrell sweetly sings, The gentle dove may, when these turmoils cease, The changes from winter to spring, and from a time of war to that of peace, are here very happily compared, but in our flower legends Herrick will be heard to greatest advantage; in grace, fancy, and the most melodious cadences of verse, he is unrivalled, either by old or modern writers. Yet while thus eulogising his really sweet poems, I ought perhaps to add, that these shine out but as straggling stars in a clouded sky; and that in the entire collection of his works there is far more to pass over than to pause and admire; a selection of Herrick's poems would form so valuable and delightful volume I much wonder such a work has not yet appeared. a The gallant and graceful Earl Surrey, the lover of the fair Geraldine, has dedicated one of his sweetest sonnets to "A Description of Spring, in which eche thing renews, save only the lover." The soote season, that bud and bloome forthe brings, The hart hath hung his old head on the pale, The swallow swift pursueth the flies smale, Winter is worne, that was the flouer's bale; Of all the attributes of Spring Flowers take the precedence; the very mention of "the soote season" brings with it the thought of the "bud and bloom" that form its chiefest beauty, and ere well apparelled April on the heel Of limping Winter treads, E we are eagerly longing for the time, when Daisies pied, and violets blue, And lady smocks all silver white, Do paint the meadows with delight. How gracefully linked together in perfect poesy are the few sweet spring flowers which our divine Shakspeare represents the fair Perdita as wishing for to present to her guests— O Proserpina, For the flowers now, that, frighted, thou let'st fall From Dis's waggon! Daffodils That come before the swallow dares, and take The winds of March with beauty. Violets, dim, Having culled most of Shakspeare's floral gems for introduction in other parts of the present volume, I will only select one or two more groups of flowers, and then pass on to the fables, &c., connected with those forming the illustrations of Spring. Ben Jonson- rare Ben Jonson"- has a most beautiful scene in "Pan's Anniversary," where all the flowers familiarly known are thus lightly yet richly grouped. Strew, strew the glad and smiling ground The primrose drop, the Spring's own spouse, The garden star, the queen of May, Drop, drop your violets, change your hues, SHEPHERD. Well done, my pretty ones -rain roses still, Until the last be dropt; then hence, and fill Pinks, goulands, king-cups, and sweet sops-in-wine, That when the altar, as it ought, is drest, More odour comes not from the phoenix's nest, The breath thereof Panchaia may envy, The colours China, and the light the sky. Ben Jonson, with most of the old poets, studiously preserved the sense of the name given to each flower: for instance, instead of daisy, a word which at first seems to mean nothing, he says "bright day's-eyes," the flower having received that name from its habit of closing up in rainy weather and at night. Besides " eye of the day," it was also named " marguerite," a pearl, under which title it is celebrated by Chaucer. In Feverere, whan that it was colde, Froste, snowe, haile, raine, hath dominacion, And yet Aprillis, with his plesant showres, Of whose invencion lovirs may be glade, The daisie, or flowir white and rede, And in Frenchie called La belle Marguérite. Chaucer's love of the daisy is most fully and beautifully expressed in the "Prologue to the Legende of goode Women," one of the many gems we find in his works. He describes his great fondness for study, and how he delights in reading his "olde bookes," for which he has such faith and credence that no sport nor gaine can entice him away from them. |