74 
THE LANGUAGE OF FLO WEES. 
Millevoye “ La feuille de chene.” Bryant eloquently 
wrote, — 
“ This mighty oak — 
By whose immovable stem I stand, and seem 
Almost annihilated — not a prince 
In all the proud old world beyond the deep 
Ere wore his crown as loftily as he 
Wears the green coronal of leaves with which 
Thy hand has graced him.” 
AMARANTH (Amaranthus ). Immortality. 
“ Sad Amaranthus, made a flowre hut late, 
Sad Amaranthus, in whose purple gore 
Me seemes I see Amintas’ wretched fate, 
To whom sweet poets’ verse hath given endless date.” 
The amaranth is one of the last gifts of Autumn. 
The ancients associated it with supreme honors, and 
adorned with it the foreheads of the gods. In the 
“Jeux Floraux,” at Toulouse, the prize for the best 
lyric was a golden amaranth. It has, for some reason 
or other, been a favorite of the poets ; and Milton, in 
Book III. of his great poem, pays it this homage : — 
“ To the ground, 
With solemn adoration, down they cast 
Their crowns, inwove with amaranth and gold, 
Immortal amaranth, a flower which once 
In Paradise, fast by the tree of life, 
Began to bloom; but soon, for man’s offence, 
To Heaven removed, where first it grew, there grows 
And flowers aloft, shading the fount of life. 
And where the river of bliss, through midst of Heaven, 
Bolls o’er Elysian flowers her amber stream, 
With these, that never fade, the spirits elect • 
Bind their resplendent locks inwreathed with beams.” 
And again in Lycidas, — 
“ Bid Amaranthus all his beauty shed.” 
