"Welcome, wild harbinger of spring! To this small nook of earth; Feeling and fancy fondly cling Round thoughts which owe their birth To thee, and to the humble spot Where chance has fixed thy lowly lot."

"Hail to the King of Bethlehem, Who weareth in his diadem The yellow crocus for the gem Of his authority!"

"You cannot forget if you would those golden kisses all over the cheeks of the meadow, queerly called dandelions."

"Upon a showery night and still, Without a sound of warning, A trooper band surprised the hill, And held it in the morning. We were not waked by bugle notes, No cheer our dreams invaded, And yet at dawn, their yellow coats On the green slopes paraded."

"Dear common flower, that grow'st beside the way, Fringing the dusty road with harmless gold, First pledge of blithesome May, Which children pluck, and, full of pride, uphold, High-hearted buccaneers, o'erjoyed that they An Eldorado in the grass have found, Which not the rich earth's ample round May match in wealth, thou art more dear to me Than all the prouder summer-blooms may be."

"Young Dandelion On a hedge-side, Said young Dandelion, Who'll be my bride? Said young Dandelion With a sweet air, I have my eye on Miss Daisy fair."

"Silently, one by one, in the infinite meadows of heaven, Blossomed the lovely stars, the forget-me-nots of the angels."

"The blue and bright-eyed floweret of the brook, Hope's gentle gem, the sweet Forget-me-not."

"The sweet forget-me-nots, That grow for happy lovers."

"And the blue gentian-flower, that, in the breeze, Nods lonely, of her beauteous race the last."

"Thou blossom! bright with autumn dew, And colour'd with the heaven's own blue, That openest when the quiet light Succeeds the keen and frosty night."

"Blue thou art, intensely blue; Flower, whence came thy dazzling hue?"

"Beside the brook and on the umbered meadow, Where yellow fern-tufts fleck the faded ground, With folded lids beneath their palmy shadow The gentian nods in dewy slumbers bound."

"Mountain gorses, do ye teach us * * * * * That the wisest word man reaches Is the humblest he can speak?"

"Mountain gorses, ever-golden. Cankered not the whole year long! Do ye teach us to be strong, Howsoever pricked and holden Like your thorny blooms and so Trodden on by rain and snow, Up the hillside of this life, as bleak as where ye grow?"

"Love you not, then, to list and hear The crackling of the gorse-flower near, Pouring an orange-scented tide Of fragrance o'er the desert wide?"

"Hope is like a harebell, trembling from its birth, Love is like a rose, the joy of all the earth, Faith is like a lily, lifted high and white, Love is like a lovely rose, the world's delight. Harebells and sweet lilies show a thornless growth, But the rose with all its thorns excels them both."

"With fairest flowers, Whilst summer lasts, and I live here, Fidele, I'll sweeten thy sad grave; thou shall not lack The flower that's like thy face, pale primrose, nor The azur'd harebell, like thy veins."

"I love the fair lilies and roses so gay, They are rich in their pride and their splendor; But still more do I love to wander away To the meadow so sweet, Where down at my feet, The harebell blooms modest and tender."

"With drooping bells of clearest blue Thou didst attract my childish view, Almost resembling The azure butterflies that flew Where on the heath thy blossoms grew So lightly trembling."

"Simplest of blossoms! To mine eye Thou bring'st the summer's painted sky; The May-thorn greening in the nook; The minnows sporting in the brook; The bleat of flocks; the breath of flowers; The song of birds amid the bowers; The crystal of the azure seas; The music of the southern breeze; And, over all, the blessed sun, Telling of halcyon days begun."

"High in the clefts of the rock 'mid the cedars Hangeth the harebell the waterfall nigh; Blue are its petals, deep-blue tinged with purple, Mystical tintings that mirror the sky."

"I drink deep draughts of its nectar."

"O sweetest of all the flowrets That bloom where angels tread! But never such marvelous odor, From heliotrope was shed."

"All the woodland path is broken By warm tints along the way, And the low and sunny slope Is alive with sudden hope When there comes the silent token Of an April day,— Blue hepatica!"

"It is the Hyacinth, whose sweet bells stooping, Bend with the odours heavy in their cells; Amid the shadows of their fragrant drooping, Memory, that is itself a shadow, dwells."

"The bees came booming as if they had never gone, As if hyacinths had never gone. We say This changes and that changes. Thus the constant Violets, doves, girls, bees and hyacinths Are inconstant objects of inconstant cause In a universe of inconstancy. This means Night-blue is an inconstant thing. The seraph Is satyr in Saturn, according to his thoughts."

"The hyacinth for constancy wi' its unchanging blue."

"Art thou a hyacinth blossom The shepherds upon the hills Have trodden into the ground? Shall I not lift thee?"

"Come, evening gale! the crimsonne rose Is drooping for thy sighe of dewe; The hyacinthe wooes thy kisse to close In slumberre sweete its eye of blue."

"By field and by fell, and by mountain gorge, Shone Hyacinths blue and clear."

"Here hyacinths of heavenly blue Shook their rich tresses to the morn."

"If of thy mortal goods thou art bereft, And from thy slender store two loaves alone to thee are left, Sell one, and with the dole Buy hyacinths to feed thy soul."

"And the hyacinth purple, and white, and blue, Which flung from its bells a sweet peal anew Of music so delicate, soft, and intense, It was felt like an odour within the sense."

"Pale, mournful flower, that hidest in shade Mid dewy damps and murky glade, With moss and mould, Why dost thou hang thy ghastly head, So sad and cold?"

"Where the long, slant rays are beaming, Where the shadows cool lie dreaming, Pale the Indian pipes are gleaming— Laugh, O murmuring Spring!"

"I hear, I hear The twang of harps, the leap Of fairy feet and know the revel's ripe, While like a coral stripe The lizard cool doth creep, Monster, but monarch there, up the pale Indian Pipe."

"Death in the wood,— In the death-pale lips apart; Death in a whiteness that curdled the blood, Now black to the very heart: The wonder by her was formed Who stands supreme in power; To show that life by the spirit comes She gave us a soulless flower!"

"The yellow flags * * * would stand Up to their chins in water."

"Born in the purple, born to joy and pleasance, Thou dost not toil nor spin, But makest glad and radiant with thy presence The meadow and the lin."

"O flower-de-luce, bloom on, and let the river Linger to kiss thy feet! O flower of song, bloom on, and make forever The world more fair and sweet."

"Lilies of all kinds, The flower-de-luce being one!"

"And nearer to the river's trembling edge There grew broad flag-flowers, purple, prankt with white; And starry river buds among the sedge; And floating water-lilies, broad and bright."

"What, is the jay more precious than the lark, Because his feathers are more beautiful?"

"And at my silent window-sill The jessamine peeps in."

"Jasmine is sweet, and has many loves."