DAFFODIL. 
35 
DAFFODIL. 
(Unrequited Love.) 
''HE name of this flower is only a corruption of 
-L Dis’s lily, as it is supposed to be the flower that 
dropped from Pluto’s chariot when he was carrying off 
Proserpine to the infernal regions. Jean Ingelow, in 
the beautiful poem of “ Persephone,” thus introduces 
this flower into a resuscitation of the antique fable : 
“ She stepped upon Sicilian grass, 
Demeter’s daughter fresh and fair, 
A child of light, a radiant lass, 
And gamesome as the morning air. 
The daffodils were fair to see, 
They nodded lightly on the lea. 
“ Do ! one she marked of rarer growth 
Than orchis or anemone ; 
For it the maiden left them both, 
And parted from her company. 
Drawn nigh, she deemed it fairer still, 
And stooped to gather by the rill 
The daffodil, the daffodil. 
“ What ailed the meadow that it shook ? 
What ailed the air of Sicily ? 
She wondered by the brattling brook, 
And trembled with the trembling lea. 
‘The coal-black horses rise—they rise! 
0 mother, mother ! ” low she cries. 
“ ‘ 0 light, 0 light ! ’ she cries, ‘ farewell ; 
The coal-black horses wait for me. 
0 shade of shades, where I must dwell, 
Demeter, mother, far from thee ! 
