I'OETRY OF FLOWERS. 
33 
Flowers! how shrink ye 
From man’s o’erweening ways! 
He, moth-like, seeks the blaze; 
Ye dwell retired in secret modesty: 
Falsehood and change in him are e’er inherent - 
In you the child is ever like the parent. 
The open sky 
Is quick with living lights, 
Yet less heart-deep delights 
It yields than those the greenwood can supply ; 
How God can make a small flower of the field 
Perform its destinedpart, and pregnant blessings yield! 
In hour of pride, 
Not victor’s burst of joy 
Can match, without alloy, 
The raptures that with Nature’s sons abide; 
These joys she gave me in a mood of love, 
And the world’s bickering strife them never shall 
remove! 
At early morn, 
When yet your lips are wet 
With kisses given you when the stars are met, 
Long ere the hunter’s loud awakening-horn 
Hath roused the laggard to the work of death, 
What joy to suck the honied fragrance of your breath 1 
Serenely fair, 
Half-hidden by the grass, 
With virgin, bashful face, 
Blithe beauty dallying with your cheeks and hair, 
c 
