INTRODUCTORY. 
In bright array the Tulip blows; 
With gorgeous hues her garment glows; 
With royal grace she greets the sight, 
Dyed in the rainbow’s liquid light: 
But Pride deforms her queenly beauty, 
And haughty airs she deems her duty; 
Obeying Flora’s plain decree, 
The Tulip ne’er can emblem thee! 
The Snow-drop glistens from afar, 
On Winter’s brow a peerless star, 
But calm and cold—no balmy sigh 
It breathes to charm the passer by; 
Without the fragrant soul of flowers, 
In vain its beauty blooms for ours; 
It wins them not—Ah! what can be, 
Earth’s Angel! more unlike to thee! 
Ah yes! the Heart’s-ease differs more: 
Though dyed in beauty o’er and o’er, 
Though round it glows Love’s purple ray, 
And sunbeams in it lose their way, 
Yet heart’s-ease thou dost never give 
To those who in thy presence live, 
And muse, and dream of thee alone, 
And think it night when thou art gone. 
Where, mirror-like, the streamlet flows, 
The drooping lone Narcissus glows. 
Sees in the stream its bloom, its grace, 
And pineth for its own sweet face. 
Fair is the flower, but who could see 
In its self-love a type of thee ? 
What airy incense floats away 
With zephyr’s viewless wings at play? 
Is it a fairy’s sigh,—or breath 
Of some young floweret faint in death? 
Ah no! that dainty perfume flew 
From the shy Violet’s leaves of blue; 
Whose own dear flower-sylph nestling there 
Pours forth her passionate soul in prayer; 
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