When, at their noontide height, his fervid rays, 

 Tn a bright deluge burst on Cairo's spires, 



With what new lustre then thy beauties blaze, 

 Full of the god, and radiant with his fires! 



Brilliant thyself, in stole of dazzling white* 

 Thy sister plants more gaudy robes infold; 



This flames in red, and that, intensely bright, 

 Amid th' illumin'd waters lurns in gold.f 



To brave the tropic's fiery beam is thine, 

 Till in the distant west his splendors fade; 



Then, too, thy beauty and thy fire decline, 

 With morn to rise, in lovelier charms array 'd. 



What mystic treasures, in thy form conceal'd, 

 Perpetual transport to the sage supply; 



Where nature, in her deep designs reveal'd, 

 Awes wondering man, and charms th' exploring eye. 



In thy prolific vase, and fertile seeds, 



Are trac'd her grand regenerative pow'rs ;| 



Life, springing warm, from loath'd putrescence, breeds, 

 And lovelier germs shoot forth, and brighter flow'rs.' 



Thus, from Arabia borne, on golden wings, 

 The Phoenix on the Sun's bright altar dies ; § 



But from his flaming bed, refulgent, springs, 



And cleaves, with bolder plume, the sapphire skies. 



* The subject of this poem is the white Nelumbium which T <™ ;„ «■«, a , ^ 



Cowley says of the white lily, it seemed elothed in %T " " *" *"" " Ule R °^ S ardens at *ew »-* August. The same 



•f- There are three varieties of this plant, or if we rnnsHhitP \t witk t„o D :~. 

 Ufa* or if we make it, with LinnaL, of the genu CpLa ^ZZe^ZT^ ^ * ^l*""* * the te ™ *- 

 4ft ^ The leaves are in the shape, Ld of L^^^^^T^^S f^^T^ *~ "* 



maturity, decay, aud again shoot forth; for, the orifices of these cells banTto^Z^rT" " I " *** ^ ■"* 8™ to 

 in the places where they are formed, the bulb of the vessel serving as a £toTl££ them nZ^' *T ^ — **"* S™ te 

 tude as to burst it open and release themselves; after which, like other aquatic weed, TJv, t I ^^ SUCh a de S ree of ™S™- 



This plant, therefore, being thus productive ofit se lf, and vegetating from fts own Z^Ll^il J^.* 8 "™* *po*. th°em. 

 adopted as the symbol of the productive power of the Deify upon the w,te7sTmKn^w7 T ^J" ^ **<*> Was natura % 

 with some few other seeds, the cotyledons, or seminal leaves, early maSesTthemsetes it 255 £ "t ' ** h ° WW ' ^ that ' » 

 plant may at any time be seen, and in that state are deposited into the soft nrllific bosom rf he ?, ,! ?? ** "**»** ° f the ^"g 



§ Dr. Darwin, in his 2^e o/2W e , says, p. 162, "that the Phcenix nsW fom Town « . earth ' T^ ^ "^ teke instant root 

 t.on and resuscitation of all things. It is represented with the DogZr oveH* " '" " *" l " WR * l n* fc «"blem of the destruc- 



" So when Arabia's bird, with age oppress'd, 

 Consumes delighted on his spicy nest, 

 A filial Paoenix from his ashes springs, 

 Crown'd with a star, on renovated wings; 

 Ascends exulting from his funeral flame, 

 And soars, and shines, another, and the same." 



' 



