SPARE MY FLOWER. H spare my flower, my gentle flower, So soon its fleeting charms must lie Too like thy own. The breeze will roam this way to-morrow, Oh spare! and let it still outspread 133 Spare my Flower. Oh spare my flower! thou know'st not what Thy undiscerning hand would tear : A thousand charms, thou notest not, Lie treasured there. Not Solomon, in all his state, Was clad like nature's simplest child; Nor could the world combined create One flow'ret wild. Spare, then, this humble monument Its homage still. He made it who made nought in vain ; Who bade it be. Oh spare my flower! for it is frail— A timid, weak, imploring thing— And let it still upon the gale Its moral fling. That moral thy reward shall be: Catch the suggestion, and apply― "Go live like me," it cries; "like me, Soon, soon to die." LYTE. SONG. JOW the lusty spring is seen; Yet, the lusty spring hath stayed; Every woman, every maid, All love's emblems, and all cry, BEAUMONT. THE LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS. N eastern lands they talk in flowers, And they tell in a garland their loves and cares; Each blossom that blooms in their garden bowers, On its leaves a mystic language bears. The rose is a sign of joy and love, Young blushing love in its earliest dawn; And the mildness that suits the gentle dove, From the myrtle's snowy flower is drawn. Innocence shines in the lily's bell, Pure as the heart in its native heaven; The silent, soft, and humble heart In the violet's hidden sweetness breathes; And the tender soul that cannot part, A twine of evergreen fondly wreathes. The cypress that daily shades the grave, Then gather a wreath from the garden bowers, And tell the wish of thy heart in flowers. PERCIVAL. THE ROSARY. ONE asked me where the roses grew, I bad him not go seek ; But forthwith bade my Julia show A bud in either cheek. Some asked me where the rubies grow! And nothing I did say, But with my finger pointed to The lips of Julia. Some asked how pearls did grow, and where; Then spoke I to my girl To part her lips and shew them there, The quarrelets of pearl. HERRICK. |