 | Poems and Songs by E. H. B. [i.e. E. H. Bickersteth] |  |
83
TO FLOWERS.
I
Oh! ye do charm our senses—gild the earthWith greater gladness, children of the sun!
And bounteous Nature, smiling at thy birth,
Bids art thy model take;
And friendship brings thy sweets,
A simple tribute which our hearts partake.
II
Love basks among your brilliant hues—ye flowers!And, with a trembling hand, a wreath still weaves—
The fairest and the best—to deck the bowers
Where haunting beauty waits;
The altar of our hopes
Is twined with roseate hues, defying still the Fates.
84
III
E'en round the brow victorious art thou seen,The laurel still has left a place for thee,
Where glancing mildly mid that trophy green—
Like paling stars at night—
Are seen thy beauteous forms,
So purely chaste and fair, to glad our ravished sight.
IV
Thy smiles are holiest when they beam aroundThe fretted shrine—the temple of our God,—
There thy sweet off'rings in the Spring are found;
The perfume of thy breath
Floats on a prayer to heaven,—
And garlands crown the marble bust in death.
V
But in our gardens is your happy home;Born from the dew, ye gaze upon the sun;
There mid thy sweets the bee delights to roam—
Aurora bids thee rise
And hail her radiant light,
For ah!—too soon thy doom—thy short-lived beauty dies.
85
VI
Fields boast their wild flowers, and the earth is fraughtWith gems whose breath is of a purer clime,—
The world teems far beyond the powers of thought
With colours from above;—
And Nature, taught by heaven,
Paints with a master hand, and with a parent's love.
VII
Long may ye twine around our ruined towers,And shed your honours where the dead repose;
Long may love's garlands bloom around our bowers,
And cheer our path—
Frail tablets of our hopes!—
Bring flowers—wild flowers—to cheer our lonely hearth.
| Poems and Songs by E. H. B. [i.e. E. H. Bickersteth] | |