64 WILD FLO WEES. 



blossoms refresh the eye and gladden the heart of 

 the wanderer from some distant home. Men, in all 

 ages, and men of all ages, have loved the plant ; 

 and oft have poets sung of the flower so loved in 

 childhood ; but, perhaps, no poet has so consecrated 

 his verse to its beauty, as Chaucer. In the spring 

 time he says, 



" When coming is the maie 

 That in my bede ther ctawith me no daie, 

 That I n'up and walking in the mede, 

 To see this flower against the sun spreade 

 Whan it uprisith earlie on the morrowe, 

 That blissful sight softenith all my sorrowe. 

 So glad am I, when that I have presence 

 Of it, to do it all reverence,* 

 As she that is of alle flouris the floure, 

 Ful filled of alle virtu and honoure, 

 And ever alike faire and freshe of hue. 

 And ever I love it, and ever like new. 

 And ever I schall, till that mine hart die. 

 Thir lovith no one better in hys life, 

 And whan that it is eve, I runne blithe, 

 Soe soone as ever the sonne sinkith west 

 To see this floure how he will goe to reste. 

 For fear of night so hateth she darknysse 

 Her cheere is plainlie spread in the briteness 

 Of the sonne for thir it will unclose." 



And again 



" Above all flouris in the mede 

 Than I love most those flouris white and rede ; 

 Soche that men callen daisies in our towne."t 



* In allusion to the custom which prevailed in the days of 

 chivalry ; that every lady and every knight made an obeisance 

 as they plucked the daisy-flower, the emblem of fidelity in love. 



f In a MS. of the fourteenth century a portrait of this 

 daisy-loving poet is embellished in the upper right hand 



