GARDENS, WREATHS, &c. 33 



INVITATION TO FLOWERS. 



BARTON. 



Come forth, ye lovely heralds of the Spring ! 



Leave, at your Maker's call, your earthly bed ; 

 At his behest your grateful tribute bring 



To light and life, from darkness and the dead ! 

 Thou, timid Snoiv-drop, lift thy lowly head; 



Crocus and Primrose, show your varied dye; 

 Violets, your ceaseless odours round you shed, 



Yourselves the while retiring from the eye, 

 Yet loading with your sweets each breeze that passes by. 



And you, — in gay variety, that grace. 



In later months, with beauty the parterre, 

 "Making a sunshine in the shady place," 



As Una and her milk-white Lamb were there; ■ 

 Arise ! Arise ! and in your turns declare 



The power of Him who has not only made 

 The depth of Ocean, and the heights of Air, 

 And Earth's magnificence, — but has display'd 

 In you that power and skill, with beauty's charms array'd. 



Uplift, proud Sim-Jlower, to thy favourite Orb 

 That disk whereon his brightness loves to dwell ; 



And, as thou seem'st his radiance to absorb, 

 Proclaim thyself The Garden's Sentinel ; — 



And thou, too, gentle, modest Heather-bell, 



Gladden thy lonely birth-place: — Jasmines, spread 



Your star-like blossoms, fragrant to the smell; — 



