WALL-FLOWER. 
203 
Thy fragile form ; and there appear’st, 
In smiling beauty drest. 
There in the bleak and earthless bed, 
Thoubrav’st the tempest’s strife; 
And giv’st, what else were cold and dead, 
A lingering glow of life. 
THE WALL-FLOWER, 
DELTA. 
The wall-flower—the wall-flower, 
IIow beautiful it blooms ! 
It gleams above the ruined tower, 
Like sun-light over tombs; 
It sheds a halo of repose 
Around the wrecks of Time : 
To beauty give the flaunting rose,— 
The wall-flower is sublime. 
Flower of the solitary place ! 
Gray Ruin’s golden crown ! 
That lendest melancholy grace 
To haunts of old renown : 
Thou mantlest over the battlement, 
By strife or storm decayed; 
And fillest up each envious rent 
Time’s canker-tooth hath made. 
