DAFFODIL. 
DAPFODIEL. 
(Unrequited Love.) 
NHE name of this flower is only a corruption of 
Dis’s lily, as it 1s supposed to be the flower that 
dropped from Pluto’s chariot when he was carrying off 
Proserpine to the infernal regions. Jean Ingelow, in 
the beautiful poem of ‘‘ Persephone,” thus introduces 
this flower into a resuscitation of the antique fable : 

‘She stepped upon Sicilian grass, 
Demeter’s daughter fresh and fair, 
A child of light, a radiant lass, 
And gamesome as the morning air. 
The daffodils were fair to see, 
They nodded lightly on the lea. 
“Lo! one she marked of rarer growth 
Than orchis or anemone ; 
For it the maiden left them both, 
And parted from her company. 
Drawn nigh, she deemed it fairer still, 
And stooped to gather by the rill 
The daffodil, the daffodil. 
‘What ailed the meadow that it shook ? 
What ailed the air of Sicily ? 
She wondered by the brattling brook, 
And trembied with the trembling lea. 
‘The coal-black horses rise—they rise! 
O mother, mother !” low she cries. 
“*¢O light, O light !’ she cries, ‘ farewell ; 
The coal-black horses wait for me. 
O shade of shades, where I must dwell, 
Demeter, mother, far from thee ! 



