
‘The Poetry of Flowers. 61 
FRAGMENT. 
BY COWPER. 
Some clothe the soil that feeds them, far diffused 
And lowly creeping, modest and yet fair, 
Like virtue, thriving most where little seen ; 
Some, more aspiring, catch the neighbour shrub 
r With clasping tendrils, and invest his branch, 
Else unadorned, with many a gay festoon 
And fragrant chaplet, recompensing well 
The strength they borrow with the grace they lend 
7 
i, 
—_+>——- 
TO A MOUNTAIN DAISY, 
ON TURNING ONE DOWN WITH THE PLOUGH. 
BY BURNS. 
WEE, modest, crimson-tippéd flower, 
Thou’st met me in an evil hour ; 
For I maun crush among the stour 
Thy slender stem ; 
To spare thee now is past my power, 
Thou bonnie gem. 
Alas ! it’s no thy neebour sweet, 
The bonnie lark, companion meet, 
Bending thee ‘mang the dewy weet, 
Wi’ speckled breast, 
When upward springing, blithe, to greet 
The purplin’ east. 
Cauld blew the bitter biting north 
Upon thy early, humble birth: 
Yet cheerfully thou glinted forth 
Amid the storm, 


