Conversations introducing poetry chiefly on subjects of natural history. For the use of children and young persons. By Charlotte Smith |
 | I. |
| 1. |
| 2. |
| 3. |
| 1. |
| 2. |
| 4. |
| 5. |
| II. |
| 6. |
| 7. |
| 8. |
TO A GERANIUM WHICH FLOWERED DURING THE WINTER.
|
| 9. |
 | Conversations introducing poetry |  |
117
TO A GERANIUM WHICH FLOWERED DURING THE WINTER.
WRITTEN IN AUTUMN.
Native of Afric's arid lands,
Thou, and thy many-tinctur'd bands,
Unheeded and unvalued grew,
While Caffres crush'd beneath the sands
Thy pencil'd flowers of roseate hue.
Thou, and thy many-tinctur'd bands,
Unheeded and unvalued grew,
While Caffres crush'd beneath the sands
Thy pencil'd flowers of roseate hue.
118
But our cold northern sky beneath,
For thee attemper'd zephyrs breathe,
And art supplies the tepid dew,
That feeds, in many a glowing wreath,
Thy lovely flowers of roseate hue.
For thee attemper'd zephyrs breathe,
And art supplies the tepid dew,
That feeds, in many a glowing wreath,
Thy lovely flowers of roseate hue.
Thy race, that spring uncultur'd here,
Decline with the declining year,
While in successive beauty new,
Thine own light bouquets fresh appear,
And marbled leaves of cheerful hue.
Decline with the declining year,
While in successive beauty new,
Thine own light bouquets fresh appear,
And marbled leaves of cheerful hue.
Now buds and bells of every shade,
By Summer's ardent eye survey'd,
No more their gorgeous colours shew;
And even the lingering asters fade,
With drooping heads of purple hue.
By Summer's ardent eye survey'd,
No more their gorgeous colours shew;
And even the lingering asters fade,
With drooping heads of purple hue.
But naturalized in foreign earth,
'Tis thine, with many a beauteous birth,
As if in gratitude they blew,
To hang, like blushing trophies forth,
Thy pencill'd flowers of roseate hue.
'Tis thine, with many a beauteous birth,
As if in gratitude they blew,
To hang, like blushing trophies forth,
Thy pencill'd flowers of roseate hue.
Oh then, amidst the wintry gloom,
Those flowers shall dress my cottage room,
Like friends in adverse fortune true;
And soothe me with their roseate bloom,
And downy leaves of vernal hue.
Those flowers shall dress my cottage room,
Like friends in adverse fortune true;
And soothe me with their roseate bloom,
And downy leaves of vernal hue.
| Conversations introducing poetry | |