University of Virginia Library

A NOSEGAY.

When Flora wore her gayest vest,
Each meadow breath'd perfume,
In gaudiest flow'rs each hedge-briar drest,
Each hawthorn white with bloom,
I wander'd thro' each mead and grove,
The fairest flow'rs to cull,
And visited my gay alcove,
Each sweetest bud to pull.
The posie gather'd home I brought,
To grace my fair-one's breast.
Then thus, as teeming Fancy taught,
Each flow'r its worth exprest—
For Fancy, who in clouded skies
Pourtrays the varying tale,
Can give each flow'r a voice whose dyes
Enrich the scented vale.