University of Virginia Library

THE PASSION FLOWER

TO MIRA.

Behold yon charming flow'r my fair,
Mira may find a moral there!
Expanding to the orb of day,
As if enamour'd of its ray;
It lives but in the sunny glow,
And nourish'd thence the blossom's blow.
Thus, Mira, of thy kindness born,
Love seem'd a rose without a thorn
Delighted in this breast it grew,
Owing each vermeil tint to you:
My heart confess'd thy genial pow'r;
Thy smile, like sunshine to the flow'r.
But see how fades the flow'r away
With the last tinge of parting day;

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Its glossy colour instant flies,
Extinct are all its thousand dies.
Thus, Mira, thy diminish'd pow'r,
Still bears allusion to the flow'r;
Tho' love's soft gales were in thy sighs
And all his sunshine in thine eyes,
That love withdrawn which one possessed,
And reign'd th' enthusiast of thy breast;
Farewell to all that gave it birth,
And, like the Sun, remov'd from earth;
No more I own thy beauty's pow'r,
For thou hast kill'd the Passion Flow'r.