FABLES OF FLOWERS. 
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Gay plants on every side 
Unclosed their lovely blooms, 
And scatter’d far and wide 
Their ravishing perfumes : 
The butterfly, the bee, 
And many an insect on the wing. 
Full of the spirit of the spring, 
Flew round and round in endless glee, 
Alighting here, ascending there, 
Ranging and revelling everywhere. 
Now all the flowers were up and drest 
In robes of rainbow colour’d light; 
O 7 
The pale primroses look’d their best, 
Peonies blush’d with all their might; 
Dutch tulips from their beds 
Flaunted their stately heads; 
Auriculas, like belles and beaux, 
Glittering witli birthnight splendour rose ; 
And polyanthuses display’d 
The brilliance of their gold brocade : 
Here hyacinths of heavenly blue 
Shook their rich tresses to the morn, 
While rose-buds scarcely show’d their hue, 
But coyly linger’d on the thorn. 
Till their loved nightingale, who tarried long, 
Should wake them into beauty with his song. 
The violets were past their prime, 
