ROSE. 
115 
The emblem of all ages, the interpreter of all 
our feelings, the Rose mingles with our festivi¬ 
ties, our joys, and our griefs. Modesty borrows 
its delicate blush; it is given as the prize of 
virtue; it is the image of youth, innocence, and 
pleasure; it is consecrated to Venus, the god¬ 
dess of beauty, and, like her, possesses a grace 
more exquisite than beauty itself. 
Anacreon, the poet of love, has celebrated the 
Rose in an ode, thus rendered by our English 
Anacreon: 
While we invoke the wreathed spring, 
Resplendent Rose! to thee we’ll sing; 
Resplendent Rose ! the flower of flowers, 
Whose breath perfumes Olympus’ bowers; 
Whose virgin blush, of chasten’d dye, 
Enchants so much our mortal eye. 
Oft has the poet’s magic tongue 
The Rose’s fair luxuriance sung; 
And long the Muses, heavenly maids, 
Have rear’d it. in their tuneful shades. 
When, at the early glance of morn, 
It sleeps upon the glittering thorn, 
’Tis sweet to dare the tangled fence, 
To cull the timid flow’ret thence, 
And wipe, with tender hand, away 
The tear that on its blushes lay ! 
