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THE LOVETTS OFFERING, 
Ye please the savage, attract the sage, 
Shed your sweets o'er youth, and your charms o’er 
age; 
Ye are lov’d by all, yet ye will not stay—• 
Wherefore so soon do ye perish away P 
Beautiful flowers! oh, tell me now, 
Under the leaves of the mulberry bough; 
Or, if not there, let an answer come 
With the plundering bee as he hasteth home; 
Or whisper a word to the fragrant gale, 
As it kisses your lips for a balmy tale; 
Hark! hark! I hear from the roseate bowers 
The honied voice of the queen of flowers! 
“ Mine is the realm of the fair and free, 
Fragrance and beauty were made for me; 
But light-heeled nymphs have usurped my right. 
And busied themselves in my bowers of light; 
And fairies rifle my sweetest flowers 
Of their mellowest hues and their ripest powers; 
And thus, through the wanton wreck they’ve made, 
’Tis the brightest of blossoms that soonest fade!” 
THE ROSE AMONG THORNS. 
A pious man was one day pacing sorrow¬ 
fully up and down his garden, and doubt¬ 
ing the care of Providence. At length he 
stood transfixed before a rose-bush, and 
