 | Songs and Ballads |  |
11
THE DAHLIA.
Iv'e heard there once was a terrible fight
For precedence in Flora's bowers;
From sprigs of quality turning their back
Upon what they deem'd commoner flowers;
Oh great was the struggle! exotics toss'd
Their aristocratic heads,
And many who had been inclined to shoot,
Were obliged to keep their beds.
For precedence in Flora's bowers;
From sprigs of quality turning their back
Upon what they deem'd commoner flowers;
Oh great was the struggle! exotics toss'd
Their aristocratic heads,
And many who had been inclined to shoot,
Were obliged to keep their beds.
The lily had beauty and fashion too,
'Twas own'd that she bore the bell,
And the roses are a recherche race,
As all by their cuttings may tell;
But when the fair Dahlia came, she heard
A London pride thus say—
“We nobles of botany scorn to heed
“With the blossoms of Botany Bay.”
'Twas own'd that she bore the bell,
And the roses are a recherche race,
As all by their cuttings may tell;
But when the fair Dahlia came, she heard
A London pride thus say—
“We nobles of botany scorn to heed
“With the blossoms of Botany Bay.”
But when worth and modesty chance to rise,
It matters not whence they came,
For 'tis upstart folly himself who points
To his former humble name:
The Dahlia family now we meet,
In the most select of bowers;
Permitted to carry their heads as high
As some of the older flowers.
It matters not whence they came,
For 'tis upstart folly himself who points
To his former humble name:
The Dahlia family now we meet,
In the most select of bowers;
Permitted to carry their heads as high
As some of the older flowers.
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