HIBISCUS. 



Venetian Mallow ; 

 or, Flower of an hour. 



Hibiscus trionum. 



Delicate Beauty. 



Early, bright, transient, chaste as morning dew 



She sparkled Young. 



Oh, fairest flower, no sooner blown, but blasted. 



Beauty is but a vain, a fleeting good, 

 A shining gloss that fadeth suddenly ; 



A flow'r that dies when almost in the bud ; 

 A brittle glass that breaketh presently ; 



A fleeting good, a gloss, a glass, a flow'r, 

 Lost, faded, broken, dead, within an hour. 



Milton. 



Shaks. 



But beauty how frail and how fleeting, 



The bloom of a fine summer's day ; 

 While worth in the mind of my Phillis 



Will flourish without a decay Burns. 



What 's beauty ? call you that your own, 

 A flower that fades as soon as blown ? . . 



Who trusts beauty, trusts the fading rose. 



Gay. 



Youth with rapid swiftness flies, 



Beauty's lustre quickly dies Horace. 



HOLLY. 

 Ilex. 



Am I forgotten? 



And can thy promise to be mine, 



Be e'er forgot ? 

 If pity in that bosom dwell, 

 My fears, my jealous fears dispel, 



Forget me not ! 



My life would waste in grief, sweet maid, 

 As wounded flow'rets droop and fade, 



By thee forgot ! 



Thou bad'st me thy fond vows believe, 

 And can'st thou now my hopes deceive, 



Sweet maid ! 



Oh ! think upon those vows, dear maid, 

 When in the grove at eve we 've stray'd, 

 Deceive me not, my lovely maid. . . 



Oh ! if she loves as I have loved, 

 She never can forget ! 



Bayly. 



Answer. 



Forget thee ! no never among the light hearted, 



Love may sink to decay, when the fond ones are parted 



But affection like ours is too deep and sublime, 



To be chill'd in its ardour by absence or time. 



I will not forget thee, till life's latest day 



In the dark night of death shall have melted away. 



Barbour, 





