University of Virginia Library

LOVE IN A MIST ........ You bewilder me.

A FLOWER-CHARADE.

The nymphs, in a pet, tripped to Venus one morn,
And declared to the gay queen of Beauty,
That the freaks of THE FIRST could no longer be borne,
That he treated their maiden monitions with scorn,
And laughed at their lessons of duty.
They regretted to say that he dreamed but of play,
While he vowed that he knew more than they did,
And, for their part, they begged she would take him away,
For with chiding and coaxing him, day after day,
They were sure that their bloom was quite faded.
“We would gladly,” they sighed, “keep his little wings tied!
But the moment we bind him, he cries out,
‘No, no! let me go! I've a shaft—I've a bow.’
Then he sharpens his arrow, and frowns at us so,
That we fear he will soon put our eyes out!”
Fair Venus, amused at their innocence, smiled,
But replied with her wonted suavity,—
“My thanks for the tenderness shown to the child;
I know he is petulant, playful and wild,
I wish we could teach him more gravity;
But when he's seen more of the world, he'll outgrow,
I trust, every light peccadillo.
I wish him to study the languages;—so
Fit him out for his travels,—at once let him go,
And Jupiter bless the dear fellow!”
The white doves were harnessed—the car polished bright—
The nymphs and his mother wept o'er him;
He mounted—he bowed—and away like the light,
Past comet and star, sped the Paphian sprite,
With his bow and his arrows before him.
The second he reached at the close of the day,
And he called for a bottle of nectar,
But the blushing bar-maid murmured “What did you say?
Is it this?” and she gave him a glass of tokay—
Ah! do not of mischief suspect her!
The last stole over his senses wild,
With a strange, entrancing power;
He danced—he staggered—he sang—he smiled,
And at length he wandered away, poor child,
To weep in the garden-bower!
His tears sank warm in the earth, and lo!
A flower sprang up, like a fairy!
While the girl, as she saw the boy-god go,
Exclaimed, “He has left me a token though,
In this blossom, wild, glowing and airy!
I will name it for him—the stranger bright,
For I know who it was by his ringlets:”
So she called it THE WHOLE for the wildered sprite,
And it blushed and smiled, through its lattice light,
As she wreathed its soft bloom in her ringlets.