VIOLET. 443 



Che degli amanti 



A tristi pianti 



Bella Viola, il caro fior sei tu." 



MENZINI. 

 The youth delights to crown his brow 



With the glowing rose in festive hour ; 

 But, sweet and lovely violet, thou 



Art the pensive lover's favourite flower." 



-" such odours as the rose 



Wastes on the summer air, or such as rise 

 From beds of hyacinths, or from jasmine flowers, 

 Or when the blue-eyed violet weeps upon 

 Some sloping bank remote, while the young sun 

 (Creeping within her sheltering bower of leaves) 

 Dries up her tears." 



BARRY CORNWALL. 



The Violet seems a favourite with this author : he in- 

 troduces it continually. In his last poem, the Flood of 

 Thessaly, he mentions it several times : 



" Jasmine and musk, daisies and hyacinth, 

 And violets, a blue profusion, sprang, 

 Haunting the air." 



" And violets, whose looks are like the skies." 



Lord Byron has a similar idea, more beautifully ex- 

 pressed : 



" The sweetness of the violet's deep blue eyes, 

 Kissed by the breath of heaven, seems coloured by its skies." 



The Violet is continually applauded for its modesty and 

 timidity : 



i^ . _^. steals timidly away, 



Shrinking as violets do in summer's ray." 



LALLA ROOKH. 



Mr. Keats delights in describing a little woodland nook, 

 and Violets constantly breathe their sweet perfume in it. 

 (See HAWTHORN.) 



< " where to pry aloof, 



Atween the pillars of the sylvan roof, 



