FLOWERS. 
Ye are not silent, beautiful flowers ! 
Children of Summer, of sunshine and showers ! 
Gems of the Earth ! that sweet lessons impart 
In language which speaks, thro’ the eye to the heart. 
Youth! to the maid of thy love, would’st thou speak ? 
Praise the glance of her eye and the bloom on her cheek 1 
Gather a Rose bud, ’twill surely convey 
All that thy heart, in fond language would say. 
Thy faith, will the Violet surely disclose 
As it blends with thy gift of the young Summer Rose. 
If with hope, thy fond passion, the lov’d one will bless, 
The “ Hawthorn” her feelings will sweetly express. 
The Lily that’s kiss’d by the morn’s early gale. 
The emblem of purity, pride of the vale; 
Instructs us as wither’d at evening it lies, 
That innocence slander’d, droops, withers and dies. 
Thus, beautiful Nature ! these treasures of thine, 
Which, like gems on the bosom of Earth, brightly shine, 
Not only of love, do they silently tell 
But holier lessons in each of them dwell. 
J. B. P. 
