THE FLOWER GARDEN OF THE POETS. 
561 
sweet graces from being injured by those mis- 
( bievous agencies very often touched on by 
the poet, 
" As killing as the canker to the rose." — Milton. 
The canker in the rose is a favourite simile. 
Shakspeare has it more than once : — 
" As in the bud bit with an envious worm, 
Ere he can spread his sweet leaves to the air. 
And dedicate his beauty to the sun." 
And again, in his fifty-fourth sonnet, he 
gives expression to an idea of the same kind : 
" The rose looks fair, but fairer ,we it deem 
For that sweet odour which doth in it live ; 
The cauker'd blooms have full as deep a dye 
As the perfumed tincture of the roses 
Hang on such thorns, and play as wantonly. 
When summer's breath their masked bud discloses." 
The property which renders the rose so much 
admired, that of retaining its scent when the 
beauty of its appearance has gone, when its 
leaves are withered, when it has shrunk into 
nothing, gives occasion for a fine figure. 
Shakspeare expresses this welL He has been 
speaking of the tilings which are valuable only 
so long as their beauty lasts, — whose virtue 
dies with their show. 
" Sweet roses do not so; 
Of their sweet deaths are sweeter odours made." 
Spenser, the quaint poet of Fairyland, does 
not appear to have been possessed by the love 
of flowers in a degree half so extreme as that 
by which the other poets have been influenced. 
He sehlom makes allusion to them except 
generally. This we cannot fail to regret, 
evident as it is that, had he chosen them for 
his theme in any portion of his poem, his 
easy and rapid pen could have delineated a 
picture than which nothing could be more 
pleasing. In the march of the months, how- 
ever, occasional references occur to the flowery 
gifts of nature. April is described as riding 
upon a bull, whose horns are 
" Gilden all with golden studs, 
And garnished with garlands goodly bright. 
Of all the fairest flowers and freshest buds." 
And May comes leaping forward — 
" Deckt with all the dainties of her season's pride, 
And throwing flowers out of her lap around." 
The altar prepared for the sacrifice of 
Serena is decked "with ariest fiowers," and 
for the victim a garland is prepared. The 
lovely Medora is represented with " a chaplet 
of sundry flowers " on her head, and her hair 
" with flowers bescattered." The " djedale 
earth " is spoken of as throwing forth — 
" Out of her fruitful lap aboundant flowers.' 
On several other occasions Spenser brings 
in an allusion to flowers ; Taut, on the 
whole, he seems not to have taken much de- 
light in them, preferring rather to dilate, 
49. 
either on grim spectacles, or on the more 
gorgeous and brilliant magnificence of palaces 
and castles. From him let us turn to Byron, 
the poet of gloom. He, too, shows little liking 
for flowers. He takes but little pleasure in 
the soft and gentle beauties of the garden, but 
rather loves to turn his ambitious thought 
towards the passions, and to that grandeur and 
magnificence of description in which these 
humble ornaments would be lost. He is 
almost the only poet who associates with t!iem 
any idea contrary to that of happiness or in- 
nocence : — 
" Flowers whose wild odours breathe but agonies." 
However, there is rich beauty in the lines : — 
" Gently flows 
The deep-dyed Brenta, where tbeir hues instil 
The odorous purple of a new-born rose 
Which streams upon her stream, and glass'd within it 
glows." 
But Byron, as we have said, was no lover 
of flowers, and we must leave him. His 
poems contain occasional allusions to them, 
among which perhaps one of the most delicate 
is the following : — 
" I saw her weep ; the big round tears 
Fell from that eye of blue, 
And to my eye it did appear 
A violet dropping dew." 
Such allusions, however, are, in his poems, 
few and far between. Far otherwise was it 
with numerous other poets, whose ideas cdu- 
stantly fall into the strain, and borrow beauty 
and imagery from the flower garden. In the 
" flowery fields of joy " of Joseph Warton 
we find Youth and Mirth 
" Nodding their lily-crowned heads 
Where Laughter rose-lipp'd Hebe leads." 
And, further on, what can be more beautiful 
tlian the couplet ? — 
" When young-eyed Spring profusely throws 
From her green lap the pink and rose." 
There is less, however, in this poem which 
refers to flowers than might have been ex- 
pected. Flowers form the very crown of 
Fancy ; and, in an ode to the nymph, we 
look for more allusion to them. Dryden 
very often touched on flowers. His versifi- 
cation, though wanting in the grandeur which 
renders the poetry of Milton, Shakspeare, 
and Byron so pleasant to the ear, yet flows 
smoothly, and, as it were, glides along without 
efibrt. 
" The sycamores with eglantine were spread, 
A hedge about the sides, a covering overhead. 
And so the fragrant briar wove between 
The sycamores, and flowers were mixed with green. 
And the fresh eglantine exhaled a breath 
Whose odours were of power to raise from death." 
We shall now introduce our readers to the 
quaint but yet graceful poetry of Andrew 
o o 
