112 WILD FLOWERS. 



Then in life's goblet freely press 

 The leaves that give it bitterness, 

 Nor prize the coloured water less, 

 For in thy darkness and distress 



New light and strength they give. 



And he who has not learned to know 

 How false its sparkling bubbles shew, 

 How bitter are the drops of woe 

 With which its brim may overflow, 

 He has not learned to live. 



The prayer of Ajax was for light 

 Through all that dark and desperate fight, 

 The blackness of that noonday night, 

 He asked but the return of sight 

 To see his foeman's face. 



Let our increasing, earnest prayer 

 Be too for light -for strength to bear 

 Our portion of the weight of care 

 That crushes into dumb despair 



One half the human race. 



Oh suffering, sad humanity ; 

 Oh ye afflicted ones, who lie 

 Steeped to the lips in misery, 

 Longing, and yet afraid to die, 



Patient, tho' sorely tried ! 



I pledge you in this cup of grief 

 Where floats the fennel's bitter leaf, 

 The battle of our life is brief 

 The alarm the struggle the relief, 

 Then sleep we side by side." 



The fennel is widely distributed as a native plant ; 

 while its dissemination is increased by its pertinacity 

 in following human migrations. This is remarkably 



