8 
THE MORAL OF FLOWERS. 
FIELD FLOWERS* 
Flowers of the field, how meet ye seem 
Man’s frailty to portray, 
Blooming so fair in morning’s beam, 
Passing at eve away; 
Teach this, and oh ! though brief your reign, 
Sweet flowers, ye shall not live in vain. 
Go, form a monitory wreath 
For youth’s unthinking brow ; 
Go, and to busy manhood breathe 
What most he fears to know; 
Go, strew the path where age doth tread, 
And tell him of the silent dead. 
* The object which it has been the author’s aim to accomplish in this 
work is to pursue such a train of reflection, or draw such a moral, from 
each flower that is introduced, as its appearance, habits, or properties 
might be supposed to suggest. The first piece, however, is intended as 
introductory, and the specimens which are illustrated in the plate are only 
to be considered as the representatives of field-flowers in general. 
