30 
THE I'OETET OF FLOWERS. 
And tho gusty winds waked the winged seeds 
Out of their birth-place of ugly weeds, 
Till they clung round many a sweet flower’s stem, 
Which rotted into the earth with them. 
The water-blooms under the rivulet 
Fell from the stalks on which they were set; 
And the eddies drove them here and there, 
As the winds did those of the upper air. 
Then the rain came down, and the broken stalk* 
Were bent and tangled across the walks; 
And the leafless net-work of parasite bowers 
Mass’d into min, and all sweet flowers. 
Between the time of the wind and the snow, 
All loathliest weeds began to grow, 
Whose coarse leaves were splash’d with many 
speck, 
Like the water-snake’s belly and the toad’s back 
The sensitive plant, like one forbid, 
Wept, and the tears within each lid 
Of its folded leaves, which together grew, 
Were changed to a blight of frozen glue. 
For the leaves soon fell, and the branches soon 
By the heavy axe of the blast were hewn; 
The sap shrank to the root through every pore, 
As blood to a heart that will beat no more. 
