March Herrick. 83 



imagination. And then we have a very exquisite little 

 poem by Herrick, in which he laments their too early 

 disappearance ; a regret which has been felt by many 

 others who have loved the flower, yet never, it is prob- 

 able, expressed with such exquisite conciseness, 



' Fair daffodils, we weep to see 



You haste away so soon. 

 As yet the early-rising sun 

 Has not attained its n< 



Stay, stay 

 Until the hasting day 



Has run 



But to the even-song, 

 And having prayed together we 

 Will go with you along.* 



But of all the associations which are attached to our 

 golden narcissus, the most ennobling is its near relation- 

 ship to the ' poet's narcissus' of the Mediterranean, which 

 bears a solitary flower of pure white, with a yellow 'crown 

 often edged with orange or crimson ; and this is believed 

 to be the flower to which the beautiful Greek legend has 

 given the charm and interest which belong to imagina- 

 tive tradition, and to that alone. The different stories 

 of Narcissus agree in these particulars, that he contem- 

 plated the reflection of himself in the river Cephisus or 

 in a fountain, and afterwards became a flower, either 

 because his blood was changed into one after suicide, 

 or because a flower grew beside his grave after he died 

 of sorrow for his twin sister, unheeding the charms of 

 Echo. The stories differ as to his reason for gazing 

 upon his own image ; some say that he became enam- 



