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Floral Teaching.

O ye red-blushing summer roses, ye
Who are like queens, crowned with a rich perfume,
In whose deep heart there is no shade of gloom,
Who are a pasture for the honey-bee;
Surely your days and nights pass happily:
And when the earth, your mother, doth resume
Your little lives, do ye not think the tomb
Is full of soft leaves and looks pleasantly?
So be it with me: through life so may I deem
That this world's course is ordered well, and give
My help to others and my loving heed.

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Then when the day comes that it is decreed
I am to die, may I not cease to live,
But rest awhile waiting the morning beam.