



























38 THE POETRY OF FLOWERS. 
And niany an antenatal tomb, 
Where butterflies dream of the life to come, 
She left clinging round the smooth and dark 
Edge of the odorous cedar bark. 
This fairest creature from earliest spring 
Thus moved through the garden ministering, 
All the sweet season of the summer-tide, 
And ere the first leaf look’d brown—she died 

PART Ill. 
Three days the flowers of the garden fair, 
Like stars when the noon is awaken’d, were, 
Or the waves of the Baiz, ere luminous 
She floats up through the smoke of Vesuvius. 
And on the fourth, the sensitive plant 
Felt the sound of the funeral chant, 
And the steps of the bearers, heavy and slow, 
And the sobs of the mourners, deep and low. 
The weary sound and the heavy breath, 
And the silent motions of passing death, 
And the smell, cold, oppressive, and dank, 
Sent through the pores of the coffin plank ; 
The dark grass, and the flowers among the grass, 
Were bright with tears as the crawds did pags > 
from te 
And sate 
The gate 
like the 
Which at 
Then slo 
Tomake 
Swnlt sun 
And frost 
Thought 
Mocking 
The rose- 
Paved the 
The ilies 
like the 
a 
i Indi 
The swe 
Leaf afte 
Were mg 

And the 
And whit 
like troa 
Thee wh 

