Floral Poetry. 
THE NIGHTINGALE FLOWER. 
F AIR flower of silent night ! 
Unto thy bard an emblem thou should st be 
His fount of song in hours of garish light 
Is closed, like thee. 
But with the vesper hour 
Silence and solitude its depths unseal; 
Its hidden springs, like thy unfolding flower, 
Their life reveal. 
Were it not sweeter still 
To give imagination holier scope 
And deem that thus the future may fulfil 
A loftier hope ? 
That as thy lovely bloom 
Sheds round its perfume at the close of day, 
With beauty sweeter from surrounding gloom, 
A star-like ray; — 
So in life’s dark decline, 
When the grave’s shadows are around me cast, 
My spirit’s hopes may like thy blossoms shine, 
Bright at the last! 
And as the grateful scent 
Of thy meek flower, the memory of my name ; 
Oh ! who could wish for prouder monument, 
Or purer fame? 
The darkness of the grave 
Would wear no gloom appalling to the sight, 
Might hope’s fair blossom, like thy floweret, brav 
Death’s wintry night; 
