126 May — Hozv Etymology may be Poetical, 



Upon the small, soft, swete gras, 



That was with floures swete embroidered all. 



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In which methought I might day by day 

 Dwellen alway, the joly month of May, 

 Withouten sleepe, withouten meat or drinke. 

 A down full softly I gan to sinke, 

 And leaning on my elbow and my side, 

 The long day I shope me for to abide 

 For nothing els, and I shall not lie 

 But for to look upon the daisie, 

 That well by reason men it call may 

 The daisie, or els the eye of the day.' 



Who shall say, after this, that etymology may not be 

 poetical, since Chaucer teaches it us in his own sweet, 

 unpedantic way ? If he loved the daisy for itself, he 

 loved it also for its association with the day, and liked 

 to see in it the opening of the dawn. So, too, the French 

 marguerite has its own beautiful origin. In the Latin 

 Bible rnargarita is the word for pearl, from the Greek 

 ixap^apirr)^; and Littre thinks that the Greek word in 

 its turn comes from the Persian word mervarid> which 

 means pearl also. So here we are again en pleine poe'sie, 

 and just as Chaucer's English derivation may be ex- 

 plained in verse without lowering its tone, the origin of 

 the French word might be prettily dwelt upon by any 

 French poet who chose to write about the flower. 

 Shelley, indeed, though an Englishman, having in his 

 mind very probably the beautiful Greek associatio'n, uses 

 it as an epithet, — 



1 Daisies, those pearled Arcturi of the earth/ 



