72 
FLORAL POESY. 
And some said it was Happiness, 
4nd some said it was Spring, 
And some said it was Grief and Tears, 
And many such a thing ; 
But still the little flower bloomed. 
And still it lived and throve. 
And men do it call “ Summer Growth,” 
But angels call it “ Love ! ” 
THE LILY OF THE VALLEY 
(.Return of Happiness.) 
“Be thy advent the emblem of all I would crave.” 
Bernard Barton. 
T HE Lily of the Valley, sometimes called the May 
Lily, and in some country villages Ladder to 
Heaven, in the floral languages of Europe is emblema¬ 
tic of the return of happiness, doubtless in allusion to 
the season of the year when it puts forth its blossoms. 
Keats was very fond of it, and says : 
“No flower amid the garden fairer grows 
Than the sweet lily of the lowly vale, 
The queen of flowers.” 
And further on 
“ Valley-lilies, whiter still 
Than Leda’s love.” 
In that enchanted garden where the sensitive plant 
grew, Shelley lovingly placed 
“ The naiad-like lily of the vale, 
Whom youth makes so fair, and passion so pale, 
That the light of its tremulous bells is seen 
Through their pavilions of tender green.” 
