Daffodil. 
253 
The daffodil was a great favourite with many of the Eliza¬ 
bethan poets, who have left several laudatory verses upon its 
charms ; but the most admired—and deservedly so—appears 
to be Herrick’s sweet address to daffodils: 
“ Fair daffodils, we weep to see 
Ye haste away so soon; 
As yet the early-rising sun 
Has not attained his noon: 
Stay, stay, 
Until the hastening day 
Has run 
But to the even-song, 
And, having pray’d together, we 
Will go with ye along. 
“We have short time to stay as ye. 
We have as fleet a Spring, 
As quick a growth to meet decay 
As you or anything: 
We die 
As your hours do, and dry 
Away, 
Like to the Summer’s rain, 
Or as the pearls of morning’s dew. 
Ne’er to be found again.” 
Ancient writers did not omit to pay this sweet flower its due 
meed of praise, although, on account of its narcotic properties, 
they regarded it as the emblem of deceit; for, although as Homer 
assures us, it delights heaven and earth with its odour and 
beauty, yet, at the same time, it produces stupor and even death. 
It was consecrated to the Eumenides, Ceres, and Proserpine, 
therefore Sophocles calls it the garland of the great goddesses; 
and Pluto, by the advice of Venus, employed it to entice Pro¬ 
serpine to the lower world. 
Virgil speaks of the cup of this flower as containing the 
tears of Narcissus, and Milton, ever ready for a classic allu¬ 
sion, bids 
“ Daffodils fill their cups with tears, 
To strew the laureat hearse where Lycid lies.” 
Amongst Eastern races the daffodil is much esteemed, the 
Persians designating it “the golden,” and the Turks “the 
golden bowl.” 
The Jonquil, another flowering bulb of the Narcissi family, 
was originally imported into England from Constantinople. It 
is held as an emblem of desire by the Turks, a people of whose 
floral language such an interesting account is contained in the 
fascinating letters of Lady Mary Wortley Montague. 
