THE ROSE. 



" Rose ! thou art the sweetest flower, that ever drank the amber shower ; 

 Rose ! thou art the fondest child of dimpled Spring, the wood-nymph 

 wild ! " 



and again, 



" While we invoke the wreathed Spring, resplendent Rose ! to thee we'll 

 sing ; 



Resplendent Rose, the flower of flowers, whose breath perfumes Olym- 

 pus' bowers ; 



Whose virgin blush, of chasten'd dye, enchants so much our mortal 

 eye." 



and further, 



" The Rose distils a healing balm, the beating pulse of pain to calm ; 

 Preserves the cold inurnfed clay, and mocks the vestige of decay ; 

 And when at length in pale decline, its florid beauties fade and pine, 

 Sweet as in youth, its balmy breath diff'uses odour e'en in death ! " 



We are told that all Roses were once white, and Herrick 

 accounts for some being changed into red, thus, 



" 'Tis said, as Cupid danced among the gods, he down the nectar flung ; 

 Which on the white rose being shed, made it for ever after red." 



Moore, however, makes the origin of the red Rose coeval 

 with the rising of Venus (Aphrodite) from the foam of the 

 sea ; he- says, ■ 



" Then, then, in strange eventful hour, the earth produced an infant 

 flower, 

 Which sprung, with blushing tinctures drest, and wantoned o'er its 



parent breast. 

 The gods beheld this brilliant birth, and hailed the Rose, the boon of 



earth ! 

 With nectar drops, a ruby tide, the sweetly orient buds they dyed. 

 And bad them on the spangled .thorn expand their bosoms to the morn 



174 



