34 FABLES OF FLORA. 
‘ Ah me! one moment from thy sight 
That thus my truant eye should stray! 
The god of glory sets in night; 
His faithless flower has lost a day.’ 
Sore sighed the flower, and drooped her head, 
And sudden tears her breast bedewed; 
Consenting tears the sisters shed, 
And, rapt in holy wonder, viewed. 
With joy, with pious pride elate, 
‘ Behold,’ the aged Abbess cries, 
1 An emblem of that happier fate 
Which Heaven to all but us denies! 
1 Our hearts no fears but duteous fears, 
No charm but duty’s charm, can move; 
Who shed no tears but holy tears 
Of tender penitence and love. 
‘ See, there, the flattering world portrayed, 
In that dark look, that creeping pace 1 
No plant can bear the Ivy’s shade ; 
No tree support its cold embrace. 
‘ The oak that rears it from the ground, 
And bears its tendrils to the skies, 
Feels at his heart the rankling wound, 
And in its poisonous arms he dies.’ 
