MORAL OF FLOWERS. 
75 
THE FLOWER OF THE DESERT. 
BY MRS. HEMANS. 
“Who does not recollect the exultation of Vaillant 
over a flower in the torrid wastes of Africa ? The affecting 
mention of the influence of a flower upon the mind, by 
Mungo Park, in a time of suffering and despondency, in 
the heart of the same savage country, is familiar to every 
one.” 
Howitt’s Book of the Seasons. 
Why art thou thus in thy beauty cast, 
O lonely, loneliest flower; 
Where the sound of song hath never pass’d 
From human hearth or bower? 
I pity thee, for thy heart of love, 
For that glowing heart, that fain 
Would breathe out joy with each wind to rove— 
In vain, lost thing ! in vain ! 
