90 
THE MORAL OF FLOWERS. 
their favourite May.* Thus Thomson, in his Invocation 
to Spring, says, 
-“ Veil’d in a shower 
Of shadowing roses, on our plains descend ! ” 
And Spenser speaks of 
“ The roses reigning in the pride of May.” 
Milton, however, designates it rightly, when in his 
pathetic lament on his blindness, he says, 
-“ Thus with the year 
Seasons return, but not to me returns 
Day, or the sweet approach of even or morn, 
Or sight of venial bloom, or summer ’s rose.” 
Drummond also, the sweet poet of Ilawthorndcn, has 
the following lines on a rose plucked from its stem: — 
“ Look as the flower which lingeringly doth fade, 
The morning’s darling late, the summer’s queen : 
Spoil’d of that juice which kept it fresh and green, 
As liigh as it did raise, bows low its head.” 
* The ancient painters also hailed it with similar favour, and gifted it 
in like manner; for, in their personifications of this month, they have 
represented it by a lovely-countenanced youth, clad in a green and white 
robe, embroidered with flowers, and crowned with a garland of white and 
damask roses. 
