 | A New Year's Eve, and Other Poems |  |
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THE NIGHTINGALE FLOWER.
“There is an evening flower of the Cape, which, in its natural state, remains
in its calyx all the day invisible; in the evening it expands its corolla, and sheds
a delightful perfume till the rising of the sun.”
Bucke's Beauties, Harmonies, and Sublimities of Nature.—Vol. iii. p.340.
Fair flower of silent night!
Unto thy bard an emblem thou shouldst be:
His fount of song, in hours of garish light,
Is closed like thee.
Unto thy bard an emblem thou shouldst be:
His fount of song, in hours of garish light,
Is closed like thee.
But, with the vesper hour,
Silence and solitude its depths unseal:
Its hidden springs, like thy unfolding flower,
Their life reveal.
Silence and solitude its depths unseal:
Its hidden springs, like thy unfolding flower,
Their life reveal.
83
Were it not sweeter still
To give imagination holier scope,
And deem that thus the future may fulfil
A loftier hope?
To give imagination holier scope,
And deem that thus the future may fulfil
A loftier hope?
That, as thy lovely bloom
Sheds round its perfume at the close of day,
With beauty sweeter from surrounding gloom,
A star-like ray;—
Sheds round its perfume at the close of day,
With beauty sweeter from surrounding gloom,
A star-like ray;—
So in life's dark decline,
When the grave's shadows are around me cast,
My spirit's hopes may like thy blossoms shine
Bright at the last;
When the grave's shadows are around me cast,
My spirit's hopes may like thy blossoms shine
Bright at the last;
And as the grateful scent
Of thy meek flower, the memory of my name!
Oh! who could wish for prouder monument,
Or purer fame?
Of thy meek flower, the memory of my name!
Oh! who could wish for prouder monument,
Or purer fame?
84
The darkness of the grave
Would wear no gloom appalling to the sight,
Might Hope's fair blossom, like thy flowret brave
Death's wintry night.
Would wear no gloom appalling to the sight,
Might Hope's fair blossom, like thy flowret brave
Death's wintry night.
Knowing the dawn drew nigh
Of an eternal, though a sunless day,
Whose glorious flowers must bloom immortally,
Nor fear decay!
Of an eternal, though a sunless day,
Whose glorious flowers must bloom immortally,
Nor fear decay!
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