194 FLORA AND THALIA. 



LINES TO A YOUNG LADY, 



WITH VERSES OS A VARIETY OF FLOWERS. 



Some lines on many a garden flower, . 



And native wildling too, I send ; 

 Trifles like these assume a power 



To please, when offered by sl friend. 



Flowers are the brightest things which earth 

 On her broad bosom loves to cherish ; 



Gay they appear as childhood's mirth. 

 Like fading dreams of hope they perish. 



In every clime, in every age, 



Mankind have felt their pleasing sway ; 

 And lays to them have decked the page 



Of moralist, and minstrel gay. 



By them the lover tells his tale. 



They can his hopes, his fears express ; 



The maid, when words or looks would fail, 

 Can thus a kind return confess. 



They wreathe the harp at banquets tried, 

 With them we crown the crested brave; 



They deck the maid — adorn the bride — 

 Or form the chaplets for her grave. 



