I stood tiptoe upon a little hill; The air was cooling, and so very still, That the sweet buds which with a modest pride Fell droopingly in slanting curve aside, Their scanty-leaved and finely tapering stems Had not yet lost their starry diadems, Caught from the early sobbings of the morn. Born of the very sigh that silence heaves; Of all the shades that slanted o'er the green. Far round the horizon's crystal air to skim, And trace the dwindled edgings of its brim; To picture out the quaint and curious bending Or by the bowery clefts and leafy shelves. Guess where the jaunty streams refresh themselves. I gazed awhile, and felt as light and free As though the fanning wings of Mercury Had play'd upon my heels: I was light-hearted, And many pleasures to my vision started; So I straightway began to pluck a posy Of luxuries bright, milky, soft, and rosy. A bush of May-flowers with the bees about them; Ah, sure no tasteful nook could be without them; And let a lush laburnum oversweep them, And let long grass grow round the roots, to keep them Moist, cool, and green; and shade the violets, That they may bind the moss in leafy nets. A filbert-edge with wild-brier overtwined, The frequent checker of a youngling tree, That with a score of bright-green brethren shoots Round which is heard a spring head of clear waters. Prattling so wildly of its lovely daughters, The spreading blue-bells: it may haply mourn That such fair clusters should be rudely torn From their fresh beds, and scattered thoughtlessly By infant hands left on the path to die. Open afresh your round of starry folds, Ye ardent marigolds! Dry up the moisture from your golden lids, For great Apollo bids That in these days your praises should be sung On many harps, which he has lately strung; Here are sweet-peas, on tiptoe for a flight, Of buds into ripe flowers. JOHN KEATS. TO THE SWEET-BRIER. Our sweet autumnal western-scented wind In all the blooming waste it left behind, The poor girl's pathway; by the poor man's door. And humble as the bud, so humble be the song. I love it, for it takes its untouch'd stand And e'en its fragrant leaf has not its mate Bring from the odors of the spicy East. You love your flowers and plants, and will you hate That freshest will awake, and sweetest go to rest? J. G. C. BRAINARD. THE WILD HONEYSUCKLE. Fair flower, that dost so comely grow, No roving foot shall crush thee here, By Nature's self in white array'd, Smit with those charms that must decay, Unpitying frosts and Autumn's power From morning suns and evening dews PHILIP FRENEAU, 1752-1882. WILD FLOWERS. I dreamed that, as I wander'd by the way, Mix'd with a sound of waters murmuring Under a copse, and hardly dared to fling Its green arms round the bosom of the stream, But kiss'd it and then fled, as thou mightest in a dream. There grew pied wind-flowers and violets, Daisies, those pearl'd Arcturi of the earth, Faint oxlips; tender blue-bells, at whose birth And in the warm hedge grew lush eglantine, Green cowbind and the moonlight-color'd May, With its dark buds and leaves, wandering astray, And nearer to the river's trembling edge There grew broad flag-flowers, purple prankt with white, And starry river buds among the sedge, And floating water-lilies, broad and bright, Which lit the oak that overhung the hedge With moonlight beams of their own watery light; And bulrushes and reeds of such deep green As soothed the dazzled eye with sober sheen. Methought that of these visionary flowers I made a nosegay, bound in such a way I hasten'd to the spot whence I had come, P. B. SHELLEY. BEAU AND THE LILY. “I must tell you a feat of my dog Beau. Walking by the river side, I observed some water-lilies floating at a little distance from the bank. They are a large white flower, with an orange-colored eye, very beautiful I had a desire to gather one, and, having your long cane in my hand, by the help of it endeavored to bring one of them within my reach. But the attempt proved vain, and I walked forward. Beau had all the while observed me very attentively. Returning soon after toward the same place, I observed him plunge into the river, while I was |