Oh ! thou magic world of flowers, 
Fairy ministers of grace, 
Soothing all our weary hours, 
Decking every lonely place 
With a teinting bright and strange, 
Glowing in a world of change. 
Hidden links of some fair sphere,- 
Breathing of its hues of light, 
Ye have holy spells and dear, 
Ye have tokens for the sight; 
The spell of love, the voice of power, 
May thrill us from a fragile flower. 
Seek we an emblem of our dreams, 
Of hopes we fondly hide — 
Behold !*the water-lily gleams, 
Half trembling on the tide: 
And once beneath the ploughshare wild, 
The mountain-daisy looked and smiled. 
Thus should the cheek of beauty glow, 
At tales too fond, too true, 
Twine ye the myrtle for her brow 
With rose of brightest hue, 
And whisper that in Eastern bowers 
They learn the Poetry of Flowers! 
Lucy Hooper. 
