THE HELIOTROPE . 
(Devoted Attachment.) 
HE Heliotrope divides with the Sunflower the fable 
of representing Clyde, who died of love for the 
sun, the course of which its flowers are supposed 
to follow. 
This is Ovid’s* relation of her fate: 
“ She with distracted passion pines away ; 
Detesteth company ; all night, all day 
Disrobed, with her ruffled hair unbound, 
And wet with humour, sits upon the ground : 
For nine long days all sustenance forbears ; 
Her hunger cloyed with dew, her thirst with tears : 
Nor rose ; but rivets on the god her eyes, 
And ever turns her face to him that flies. 
At length to earth her stupid body cleaves , 
Her wan complexion turns to bloodless leaves. 
Yet streaked with red, her perished limbs beget 
A flower resembling the pale violet, 
Which with the sun, though rooted fast, doth move, 
And being changed, changeth not her love. 
THE HELIOTROPE. 
anon. 
There is a flower whose modest eye 
Is turned with looks of light and love, 
Who breathes her sweetest, softest sigh, 
Whene’er the sun is bright above. 
* Sandys’s translation. 
