FLORA AND THALIA. 2VJ 



With milk-wliite flowers, whence soon shall swell, 



Rich fruitage, to the taste and smell 



Pleasant alike, the strawberry weaves 



Its coronets of three-fold leaves, 



In mazes through the sloping wood. 



Nor wants there, in her dreamy mood, 



What fancy's sportiveness may think 



A cup, whence midnight elves might drink 



Delicious drops of nectar'd dew, 



While they their fairy sports pursue, 



And roundelays by fount or rill ; 



The streaked and chequered daffodil. 



Nor wants there many a flower beside, 

 On holt, and hill, and meadow pied ; 

 With pale green bloom the upright box, 

 And woodland crowfoot's golden locks ; 

 And yellow cinquefoil's hairy trail ; 

 And saxifrage with petals pale ; 

 And purple bilberry's globelike head ; 

 And cranberry's bells of rosy red ; 

 And creeping growwell blue and bright ; 

 And cranesbiU's streaks of red and white. 

 Or purple, with soft leaves of down ; 

 And golden tulip's turban'd crown. 

 Sweet-scented on its bending stem ; 

 And bright-eyed star of Bethlehem. 

 With those, the firstlings of their kind. 

 Which through the bosky {hickets wind 



