64 WITH HERBS AND FLOWERS 



ODE LV 



WHILE we invoke the wreathed spring, 

 Resplendent rose ! to thee we'll sing ; 

 Resplendent rose, the flower of flowers, 

 Whose breath perfumes Olympus' bowers ; 

 Whose virgin blush of chastened dye 

 Enchants so much our mortal eye. 

 When pleasure's bloomy season glows, 

 The Graces love to twine the rose ; 

 The rose is warm Dione's bliss, 

 And flushes like Dione's kiss ! 

 Oft has the poet's magic tongue 

 The rose's fair luxuriance sung ; 

 And long the Muses, heavenly maids, 

 Have reared it in their tuneful shades. 

 When, at the early glance of morn, 

 It sleeps upon the glittering thorn, 

 'Tis sweet to dare the tangled fence, 

 To cull the timid floweret thence, 

 And wipe with tender hand away 

 The tear that on its blushes lay ! 

 'Tis sweet to hold the infant stems, 

 Yet dropping with Aurora's gems, 

 And fresh inhale the spicy sighs 

 That from the weeping buds arise. 

 When revel reigns, when mirth is high, 

 And Bacchus beams in every eye, 

 Our rosy fillets scent exhale, 

 And fill with balm the fainting gale ! 

 Oh ! there is nought in nature bright, 

 Where roses do not shed their light ! 



