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147
TO THE FRINGED GENTIAN.
Purple flower, pale autumn's child,Blooming in beauty lone and wild—
Slowly matured by sun and shower,
To reign awhile in fleeting power;
Yet bashfully in that brief space
Hiding from view thy lovely face,
Veiling thy imperial tinge
Beneath a modest robe of fringe.
When summer-days are long and bright,
Thy lovely form ne'er meets the sight;
But when October guides the year,
And points to seasons cold and drear,
It gracefully his path-way strews,
And smiles beneath his shiv'ring dews.
Thus buds of virtue often bloom
The fairest, mid the deepest gloom.
Their latent loveliness conceal'd,
And not one embryo tint reveal'd;
Till left by fortune's sunny beam,
To ripen in affliction's gleam.
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