FABLES OF FLORA. 103 
THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM. 
‘ Pale as the pensive, cloistered nun, 
The Bethlehem Star her face unveils, 
When o’er the mountain peers the sun, 
But shades it from the vesper gales.’ 
Smith. 
Notwithstanding its ‘sainted name,’the poets 
have bestowed little notice on this modest flower; 
but we have been so fortunate as to receive from 
one of them the following beautiful Fable. 
FABLE XXX. 
The Star of Bethlehem. 
Where Time the measure of his hours 
By changeful bud and blossom keeps, 
And, like a young bride crowned with flowers, 
Fair Shiraz in her garden sleeps; 
Where, to her poet’s turban-stone, 
The Spring her grateful gifts imparts, 
Less sweet than those his thoughts have sown 
In the warm soil of Persian hearts; 
There sat the stranger, where the shade 
Of scattered date-trees thinly lay, 
While in the hot, clear heaven delayed 
The long, and still, and weary day. 
