84 PLOWEES. 



For its very brief existence, 



He will much more clothe the creatures 



Formed exactly in his image, 



And the heirs of a hereafter, 



Weak and faithless though He know them. 



Flowers, more than merely flowers, 

 Are with sanctities invested, 

 Sanctities that form a girdle 

 Round about their simple beauty. 

 Tinting it with all their magic, 

 Pouring into it their spirit : 

 Such are all the gems poetic 

 That adorn the favourite flower ; 

 Gems, the wealth of many ages, 

 Legacied to man for ever ; 

 Gems that always glint and glisten 

 On the faces of some flowers, 

 Making them, with this adornment. 

 Bright forgetmenots, that Flora 

 Grants to her devoted poets ; 

 These the true rewards of merit : 

 She bestowed the floral rainbow 

 On the bard of Hiawatha ; 

 Bums received the thorn, whiteblossomed ; 

 Cowper, the white waterlily ; 

 Walter Scott, the slender harebell ; 

 Wordsworth had the yellow primrose ; 



