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love’s token-FLOWERS. 41 
E en then I knew it would be thus, 
I thought, e’en in that hour, 
Another would its perfume steal, 
When I had reared the flower ; 
And yet I will not breathe a sigh— 
How may I dare repine ? 
The sorrow that thy mother feels 
Was suffered once by mine. 
A mother’s love ! oh, thou knowest not 
How much of feeling lies 
In those sweet words-the hopes, the fears, 
The daily strengthening ties ; 
It wakes ere yet the infant draws 
Its earliest vital breath, 
And fails but when the mother’s heart 
Chills in the grasp of death. 
Will he, in whose fond arms thou seekest 
Thine all of earthly bliss, 
E’er fee 1 a love, untiring, deep, 
And free from self, like this 1 
Ah, no man’s deepest tenderness 
Thy gentle heart may prove, 
