THE VIOLET 87 



Thou, from thy little secret mound, 

 Where diamond dew-drops shine above thee, 

 Scatterest thy modest fragrance round ; 

 And well may Nature's Poet love thee 1 " 



The delight with which its advent is hailed, is ex- 

 pressed with great depth of feeling in the following 

 lines : 



" Sweet lowly plant ! once more I bend 

 To hail thy presence here, 

 Like a beloved returning friend 

 From absence doubly dear. 



Wert thou for ever in our sight, 

 Might we not love thee less ? 

 But tww thou bringest new delight, 

 Thou still hast power to bless. 



And still thine exquisite perfume 



Is precious as of old; 

 And still thy modest tender bloom 



It joys me to behold." 



Another poet far from the home of his birth thus 

 expresses the delight experienced in finding his favourite 

 flower in the garden of a palace : 



u Sweet tenant of the hedgerow wild, 

 Whose virgin sigh perfumes the air, 

 Methinks thy beauty, pure and mild, 

 Is lost amid yon gay parterre. 



Oh 1 while thy fragrance I inhale, 

 Far other scenes before me rise ; 

 Scenes loved and lost, in vision pale, 

 They float before my humid eyes. 



Far o'er the sea, far o'er the sea, 

 Where milder suns in summer smile, 

 Exists the land so dear to me, 

 Beloved England's verdant isle. 



There first I knew thee, lowly flower, 

 In copse remote, so wildly sweet ; 

 Nor dreamt in pround and foreign bower, 

 Thy modest form I e'er should greet." 



