40 FLORA HISTORICA. 



Thou art not daunted ; 

 Nor carest if thou be set at nought ; 

 And oft alone in nooks remote, 

 "We meet thee, like a pleasant thought, 



"When such are wanted. 



Be Violets, in their secret mews, 



The flowers the wanton Zephyrs choose ; 



Proud be the Rose, with rains and dews 



Her head impearling : 

 Thou liv'st with less ambitious aim, 

 Yet hast not gone without thy fame ; 

 Thou art indeed, by many a claim, 



The poet's darling. 



If to a rock from rains he fly, 

 Or some bright day of April sky, 

 Imprison'd by hot sunshine lie 



Near the green holly ; 

 And wearily at length should fare, 

 He need but look about, and there 

 Thou art ! a friend at hand, to scare 



His melancholy. 



A hundred times, by rock or bower, 

 Ere thus I have lain couclrd an hour, 

 Have I derived from thy sweet power 



Some apprehension; 

 Some steady love, some brief delight, 

 Some memory that had taken flight, 

 Some chime of fancy, wrong or right, 



Or stray invention. 



If stately passions in me burn, 



And one chance look to thee should turn, 



I drink out of an humbler urn 



A lowlier pleasure ; 

 The homely sympathy that heeds 

 The common life our nature breeds, 

 A wisdom fitted to the needs 



Of hearts at leisure. 



