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I 
rfHE POETRY OF FLOWERS. 5* 
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THE WALL-FLOWER 
BY D. M. MOIR. 
The wall-flower—the wall-flower. 
How beautiful it blooms ! 
It gleams above the ruin’d tower, 
Like sunlight over tombs ; 
It sheds a halo of repose 
Around the wrecks of time ;— 
To beauty give the flaunting rose. 
The wall-flower is sublime. 
Flower of the solitary place ! 
Gray ruin’s golden crown! 
Thou lendest melancholy grace 
To haunts of old renown; 
Thou mantlest o’er the battlement, 
By strife or storm decay’d ; 
And fillest up each envious rent 
Time’s canker-tooth hath made. 
Whither hath fled, the choral band 
That fill’d the abbey’s nave? 
Yon dark sepulchral yew-trees strnd 
O’er many a level grave ; 
In the belfry’s crevices, the dove 
Her young brood nurseth well. 
Whilst thou, lone flower ! dost shed above 
A sweet decaying smell. 
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