And noble aspirations in my youth,
To make my own the mind of other men,
The enlightener of nations: and to rise
I knew not whither--it might be to fall;
But fall, even as the mountain cataract,
Which having leapt from its more dazzling height,
Even in the foaming strength of its abyss,
Lies low but mighty still.--But this is past,
My thoughts mistook themselves.
_Byron._
* * * * *
I loved to hear the war-horn cry,
And panted at the drum’s deep roll;
And held my breath, when--flaming high--
I saw our starry banners fly,
As, challenging the haughty sky,
They went like battle o’er my soul;
For I was so ambitious then,
I burned to be the slave--of men.
_John Neal._
* * * * *
Know thou ambition is a restless flame,
Which ever strives to reach the high-placed stars!
_Peerbold._
* * * * *
Ambition takes a thousand shapes among
Our race of Time’s most valued toys, and yet
In court, in camp, in school, and mid the buzz
Of eager trade her spirit is the same.
_C. Watson._
LAUREL.... _Glory_.
Among the ancient Greeks and Romans, the Laurel was consecrated to every
species of glory. The beautiful shrub grows abundantly at Delphi, on the
banks of the river Peneus. There its aromatic and evergreen branches
shoot up to the height of the loftiest trees; and it is alleged that, by
means of some secret virtue, they avert lightning from the spots which
they adorn.
According to ancient fable, Daphne was the daughter of the river Peneus.
Apollo fell in love with her, but she, preferring virtue to the love of
the most eloquent of the gods, fled, in order to avoid the seducing
magic of his words. Apollo pursued, and was on the point of overtaking
her, when the nymph invoked her father, and was changed into a Laurel.
The god, finding that he clasped an insensible tree in his arms, kissed
its bright leaves. “Since thou canst not be my spouse,” said he, “thou
shalt, at least, be my tree.” Thence-forward the Laurel was sacred to
Apollo.
* * * * *
Ambition! ambition! I’ve laughed to scorn
Thy robe and thy gleaming sword;
I would follow sooner a woman’s eye,
Or the spell of a gentle word.
But come with the glory of human mind,
And the light of the scholar’s brow,
And my heart shall be taught forgetfulness,
And alone at thy altar bow.
_Willis._
* * * * *
Give me the trumpet tone of fame,
The victor’s wreath, the hero’s name;
Though bites the steel and clanks the chain,
I would a warrior’s glory gain,
A nation’s pet and idol be,
With slaves to crouch and bend the knee.
_W. H. C._
* * * * *
What is glory? What is fame?
The echo of a long-lost name;
A breath, an idle hour’s brief talk;
The shadow of an arrant naught;
A flower that blossoms for a day,
Dying next morrow;
A stream that hurries on its way,
Singing of sorrow.
_Motherwell._
* * * * *
In poet’s lore, and sentimental story,
It seems as ’twere this life’s supremest aim
For heroes to achieve what men call glory,
And die intoxicate with earth’s acclaim.
Ah me! how little care the dead for breath
Of vain applause that saved them not from death.
_MacKellar._
* * * * *
To die, and leave some worthy work to earth,
Is but a fine transition. ’Tis to leave
A talisman to call the spirit back,
Reft of its ground-born tenement.
_C. Watson._
AMARANTH.... _Immortality_.
The Amaranth is unfading; and it has, therefore, been made the emblem of
immortality. In Homer’s time, it was customary to wear crowns of
Amaranth at the funerals of distinguished personages. Milton, in his
Lycidas, classes it among the flowers that “sad embroidery wear.” In the
floral games at Toulouse, the principal prize was a golden Amaranth for
the best lyric composition. The Amaranthus hypochondriacus, one of the
American species, is better known by the name of Prince’s Feather.
* * * * *
There’s a yearning that’s felt in your heart’s deepest cell,
And silently, vainly, within doth it swell;
And, scorning the hopes of the children of earth,
Seeks the bright home of its heavenly birth;
And that yearning, unquenched in the heart will lie,
Till refreshed by a draught from eternity.
_Miss Larcom._
* * * * *
Oh, listen man!
A voice within us speaks that startling word,
“Man, thou shalt never die!” Celestial voices
Hymn it unto our souls: according harps,
By angel fingers touched, when the mild stars
Of morning sang together, sound forth still
The song of our great immortality.
_Dana._
* * * * *
Immortal Amaranth! a flower which once
In paradise, fast by the tree of life
Began to bloom; but soon, for man’s offence,
To heaven removed, where first it grew, there grows
And flowers aloft, shading the tree of life.
_Milton._
* * * * *
There are distinctions that will live in heaven,
When time is a forgotten circumstance!
The elevated brow of kings will lose
The impress of regalia, and the slave
Will wear his immortality as free
Beside the crystal waters; but the depth
Of glory in the attributes of God
Will measure the capacities of mind;
And, as the angels differ, will the ken
Of gifted spirits glorify Him more.
_Willis._
* * * * *
Were death annihilation--were this life
A lamp extinguished, ne’er to be relit,--
Then words of deep despondency were fit;
Then man perchance might lift his arm in strife
Against his LORD. Were blessedness of mind
Dependent on the vastness of the heap
Of gold and gems the schemers ’mong mankind
Could gather--then ’twere virtuous to weep.
But ’tis not so. Infinity of time
Is yet to be. Beyond our vision lie
Eternal realms, ineffably sublime
And beautiful.
_MacKellar._
STRAWBERRY.... _Perfection_.
An eminent French author conceived the plan of writing a general history
of nature, after the model of the ancients. A Strawberry plant, which,
perchance, grew under his window, deterred him from this bold design. He
examined the Strawberry, and, in so doing, discovered so many wonders,
that he felt convinced the study of a single plant was sufficient to
occupy a whole lifetime. He therefore gave up the pompous title which he
had meditated for his work, and contented himself with calling it
“Studies of Nature.” The flowers of the Strawberry form pretty bouquets;
but, as the delicious fruit is preferred to the flower, they are seldom
plucked for that purpose. Among the glaciers of the Alps, the plants and
flowers of the Strawberry are found in all seasons of the year. The
plant seems to possess all the merits of plants, in their greatest
perfection. The berries are the favourite accompaniment of the lordly
feast and the most exquisite luxury of the rural repast. They vie in
freshness and perfume with the buds of the sweetest flowers; delighting
the eye, the taste, and smell, at the same time.
* * * * *
Let other bards of angels sing,
Bright suns without a spot;
But thou art no such perfect thing:
Rejoice that thou art not!
_Wordsworth._
* * * * *
She’s noble--noble, one to keep
Embalmed for dreams of fevered sleep.
An eye for nature--taste refined,
Perception swift--and balanced mind,--
And, more than all, a gift of thought
To such a spirit fineness wrought,
That on my ear her language fell
As if each word dissolved a spell.
_Willis._
* * * * *
Oh! do not die, for we shall hate
All women so when you are gone,
That thee I shall not celebrate,
When I remember thou wast one.
But yet thou canst not die, I know;
To leave this world behind is death;
But when thou from this world wilt go,
The whole world vapours in thy breath.
_Donne._
* * * * *
Were I to give my frolic fancy play,
I’d sing of her as some angelic sprite,
Who, wandering from her native home of light,
Fatigued, had fallen asleep upon the way;--
I’d fear to wake her, lest she’d plume her wings
And soar away from me and all sublunar things.
_MacKellar._
SUNFLOWER.... _False Riches_.
The Sunflower has been thus named from the resemblance which its broad
golden disk and rays bear to the sun. The first Spaniards who arrived in
Peru were amazed at the profuse display of gold among the people, but
they were still more astonished when, in May, they beheld whole fields
covered with these flowers, which they concluded, at first sight, must
be of the same precious metal. From this circumstance, and the
observation that gold, however abundant, cannot render a person truly
rich, the Sunflower has been made the emblem of false wealth. Many of
the English poets have adopted the notion that this flower ever turns
its face to the sun. Thomson, Moore, Darwin, and Barton make a very fine
use of the idea. But it is not a fact. Those flowers which face the east
at the opening of day, never turn to the west at the close of it.
* * * * *
Searcher of gold, whose days and nights
All waste away in anxious care,
Estranged from all of life’s delights,
Unlearned in all that is most fair--
Who sailest not with easy glide,
But delvest in the depths of tide,
And strugglest in the foam;
O! come and view this land of graves,
Death’s northern sea of frozen waves,
And mark thee out thy home.
_J. O. Rockwell._
* * * * *
Think’st thou the man whose mansions hold
The worldling’s pride, the miser’s gold,
Obtains a richer prize
Than he who in his cot, at rest,
Finds heavenly peace a willing guest,
And bears the earnest in his breast
Of treasure in the skies?
_Mrs. Sigourney._
* * * * *
Is all that heart requires, accomplished when
A heap of wealth is gathered at our door?
How thirsts the yearning soul for something more,
Some good that lies beyond its keenest ken!
_MacKellar._
* * * * *
Can gold calm passion, or make reason shine?
Can we dig peace, or wisdom, from the mine?
Wisdom to gold prefer: for ’tis much less
To make our fortune, than our happiness.
_Young._
* * * * *
It’s no in titles nor in rank;
It’s no in wealth like Lon’on bank,
To purchase peace and rest;
It’s no in making muckle mair:
It’s no in books: it’s no in lear,
To make us truly blest:
If happiness hae not her seat
And centre in the breast,
We may be wise, or rich, or great,
But never can be blest.
_Burns._
HELIOTROPE.... _Devoted Affection_.
The Heliotrope is a native of Peru. It is often confounded with the
Sunflower, though it is of a different genus. The blossoms of the
Heliotrope form clusters of very small, delicate, fragrant flowers,
generally of a faint purple colour or white, sometimes red, or
bluish-white. It is a general favourite of the fair sex, and is
considered as the emblem of devoted affection, on account of its face
being ever turned to the sun, which it seems to worship. The Heliotrope
was introduced into Europe in 1740, by the celebrated Jussieu.
* * * * *
As laurel leaves, that cease not to be green,
From parching sonne, nor yet from winter’s threat,--
As hardened oak, that fears no sworde so keen,--
As flint for tool, in twaine that will not fret,--
As fast as rock, or pillar surely set,--
So fast am I to you, and aye have been,
Assuredly whom I cannot forget;
For joy, for paine, for torment, nor for tene;
For loss, for gaine, for frowning, nor for threat;
For ever one, yea, both in calm and blast,
Your faithful love, and will be to the last!
_Old Poet. 1555._
* * * * *
Yet do not think I doubt thee;
I know thy truth remains;
I would not live without thee,
For all the world contains.
Thou art the star that guides me
Along life’s troubled sea;--
Whatever fate betides me,
This heart still turns to thee.
_G. P. Morris._
* * * * *
He on his side
Leaning half-raised, with looks of cordial love
Hung over her enamoured, and beheld
Beauty, which, whether waking or asleep,
Shot forth peculiar graces.
_Milton._
* * * * *
Like Ixion,
I look on Juno, feel my heart turn to cinders
With an invisible fire; and yet, should she
Deign to appear clothed in a various cloud,
The majesty of the substance is so sacred
I durst not clasp the shadow. I behold her
With adoration, feast my eye, while all
My other senses starve; and, oft frequenting
The place which she makes happy with her presence,
I never yet had power, with tongue or pen,
To move her to compassion, or make known
What ’tis I languish for; yet I must gaze still,
Though it increase my flame.
_Massinger._
MIGNONETTE.... _Your Qualities surpass your Charms_.
The Mignonette was introduced into Europe from Egypt, in 1750. It
flowers from the beginning of spring until the end of autumn. Linnæus,
who gave it the name of _Reseda odorata_, compares its perfume with that
of ambrosia.
* * * * *
No gorgeous flowers the meek Reseda grace,
Yet sip, with eager trunk, yon busy race
Her simple cup, nor heed the dazzling gem
That beams in Fritillaria’s diadem.
_Evans._
* * * * *
I see her now within my view,--
A spirit, yet a woman too!--
Her household motions light and free,
And steps of virgin liberty;
A countenance in which do meet
Sweet records, promises as sweet;
A creature not too bright or good
For human nature’s daily food.
_Wordsworth._
* * * * *
Time has small power
O’er features the mind moulds. Roses where
They once have bloomed a fragrance leave behind;
And harmony will linger on the wind;
And suns continue to light up the air,
[Illustration: MIGNIONETTE, PINK, PINK BUD.
_Your qualities surpassing your charms, have drawn from me a confession
of pure love._]
When set; and music from the broken shrine Breathes,
it is said, around whose altar-stone His flower the votary has ceased to
twine:--Types of the beauty that, when youth is gone, Breathes from the
soul whose brightness mocks decline.
_George Hill._
* * * * *
Rudely thou wrongest my deare heart’s desire,
In finding fault with her too portly pride;
The thing which I do most in her admire,
Is of the world unworthy most envied.
For in those lofty looks is close implied
Scorn of base things,--disdain of foul dishonour,
Threatening rash eyes which gaze on her so wide
That loosely they ne dare to look upon her!
_Spenser._
JASMINE.... _Amiability_.
The Jasmine is a happy emblem of an amiable disposition. In all
situations, it suffers the gardener to train its slender branches into
any form he chooses: most commonly forming a living tapestry for arbours
and garden walls, and everywhere throwing out a profusion of delicate
and charming flowers, which perfume the air. The poets have showered
their praise upon this plant, and all unite in considering it the emblem
of the winsome quality of amiability. After paying a glowing tribute to
the beauty and sweetness of the Violet, Thomas Miller, the
“basket-maker” poet, thus speaks of the Jasmine:--
Stepping further into summer, comes the star-white Jasmine,--that sweet
perfumer of the night, which only throws out its full fragrance when its
sister stars are keeping watch in the sky; as if, when the song of the
nightingale no longer cheered the darkness, it sent forth its silent
aroma upon the listening air. Many a happy home does it garland, and
peeps in at many a forbidden lattice, where Love and Beauty repose.
Little did the proud courtiers and stately dames of Queen Elizabeth’s
day dream that this sweet-scented creeper (a sprig of which seemed to
make the haughty haughtier still) would one day become so common as to
cluster around and embower thousands of humble English cottages,--a
degradation which, could they but have witnessed, would almost have made
every plait of their starched ruffs bristle up, like “quills upon the
fretful porcupine.” Beautiful are its long, drooping, dark-green shoots,
trailing around the trellis-work of a door-way, like a green curtain
embroidered with silver flowers; while here and there the queenly
Moss-Rose, creeping in and out like the threads of a fanciful tapestry,
its crimson face amid the embowered green,--a beautiful lady peeping
through a leaf-clad casement.
* * * * *
A lover on the Indian Sea,
Sighing for her left far behind,
Inhaled the scented Jasmine tree,
As it perfumed the evening wind:
Shoreward he steered at dawn of day,
And saw the coast all round embowered,
And brought a starry sprig away,
For her by whose green cot it flowered.
And oft when from that scorching shore,
In after years those odours came,
He pictured his green cottage door,
The shady porch, and window-frame,
Far, far away, across the foam:
The very Jasmine-flower that crept
Round the thatched roof about his home,
Where she he loved then safely slept.
_Miller._
WOODBINE, OR HONEYSUCKLE.... _Affection_.
This elegant, climbing shrub at once delights the eye and gratifies the
smell, by the exquisite fragrance of its blossoms; while it confers on
those humble dwellings in the rural districts of England and America, a
character of cheerfulness unknown in other countries. It begins to
flower in May, and puts forth its blossoms until the end of summer. It
is chosen as the emblem of affection, from its clinging to trees and
lattices with all the ardour and constancy of a weak, confiding woman,
clinging to one of the stronger, sterner sex, in prosperity and in
adversity.
* * * * *
Copious of flowers, the woodbine pale and wan,
But well compensating her sickly looks
With never-cloying odours, early and late.
_Cowper._
* * * * *
Sister, sister, what dost thou twine?
I am weaving a wreath of the wild Woodbine;
I have streaked it without like the sunset hue,
And silvered it white with the morning dew:
And there is not a perfume which on the breeze blows
From the lips of the Pink or the mouth of the Rose,
That’s sweeter than mine--that’s sweeter than mine:
I have mingled them all in my wild Woodbine.
_Miller._
* * * * *
A Honeysuckle, on the sunny side,
Hung round the lattices its fragrant trumpets.
_Miss Landon._
* * * * *
Ah! could you look into my heart,
And watch your image there!
You would own the sunny loveliness
Affection makes it wear.
_Mrs. Osgood._
* * * * *
The pensive soul with ardent thirsting turns
To heaven and earth to seek its fill of love.
_MacKellar._
* * * * *
Oh! there is one affection which no stain
Of earth can ever darken;--when two find,
The softer and the manlier, that a chain
Of kindred taste has fastened mind to mind.
’Tis an attraction from all sense refined;
The good can only know it; ’tis not blind,
As love is unto baseness; its desire
Is but with hands entwined to lift our being higher.
_Percival._
COWSLIP.... _Pensiveness_.
The solitary Cowslip was known to the old English poets as the “sweet
nun of the fields,” and has been immortalized in “Shakspeare’s Midsummer
Night’s Dream.” In America, the Cowslip may be found from Maine to
Missouri. Its hues are not gaudy, but winning; and the whole appearance
of the flower, as it blooms in some solitary vale, or on some gentle
slope, expresses the idea of pensive beauty.
* * * * *
The rose its blushes need not lend,
Nor yet the lily with them blend,
To captivate my eyes:
Give me a cheek the heart obeys,
And, sweetly mutable, displays
Its feelings as they rise;
Features, where pensive, more than gay,
Save when a rising smile doth play,
The sober thoughts you see;
Eyes that all soft and tender seem,
And kind affections round them beam,
But most of all on me.
_Frisbie._
* * * * *
There is a mood,
(I sing not to the vacant and the young,)
There is a kindly mood of melancholy
That wings the soul, and points her to the skies.
_Dyer._
* * * * *
Oh! fragrant dwellers of the lea,
When first the wildwood rings
With each sound of vernal minstrelsy,
When fresh the green grass springs!
What can the blessed spring restore
More gladdening than your charms?
Bringing the memory once more
Of lovely fields and farms!
Of thickets, breezes, birds, and flowers;
Of life’s unfolding prime;
Of thoughts as cloudless as the hours;
Of souls without a crime.
Oh! blessed, blessed do ye seem,
For, even now, I turned,
With soul athirst for wood and stream,
From streets that glared and burned.
From the hot town, where mortal care
His crowded fold doth pen;
Where stagnates the polluted air
In many a sultry den.
And ye are here! and ye are here!
Drinking the dew-like wine,
Midst living gales and waters clear,
And heaven’s unstinted shine.
I care not that your little life
Will quickly have run through,
And the sward, with summer children rife,
Keep not a trace of you.
For again, again, on dewy plain,
I trust to see you rise,
When spring renews the wildwood strain,
And bluer gleam the skies.
Again, again, when many springs
Upon my grave shall shine,
Here shall you speak of vanished things,
To living hearts of mine.
_Mrs. Howitt._
* * * * *
Blest are the pure and simple hearts,
Unconsciously refined,
By the free gifts that Heaven imparts
Through nature to the mind;
Not all the pleasures wealth can buy
Equal their happy destiny.
_Mrs. Wells._
* * * * *
O Nature! a’ thy shows an’ forms
To feeling, pensive hearts hae charms!
Whether the simmer kindly warms,
Wi’ life an’ light.
Or winter howls, in gusty storms,
The lang, dark night!
_Burns._
* * * * *
Melancholy
Sits on me, as a cloud along the sky,
Which will not let the sunbeams through, nor yet
Descend in rain, and end; but spreads itself
’Twixt heaven and earth, like envy between man
And man--an everlasting mist.
_Byron._
FORGET-ME-NOT.
The name of this flower expresses clearly enough the meaning which is
given to it. As a remembrancer it is universally received and eulogized.
The name is derived from a German tradition, full of melancholy romance.
It is related that a young couple, on the eve of being united, while
walking along the banks of the Danube, saw a cluster of these flowers,
floating on the stream, which was bearing it away. The affianced bride
admired the beauty of the flower, and lamented its fatal destiny. The
lover plunged into the water to secure it. No sooner had he caught it
than he found himself sinking; but, making a last effort, he threw it on
the bank at the feet of his betrothed, and, at the moment of
disappearing for ever, exclaimed, “_Vergiss mein nicht!_” Since that
event, this flower has been made emblematical of the sentiment,
Forget-me-not. Its corollas are of a soft cerulean-blue colour, and it
presents an interesting appearance as it grows along the banks of the
rivers. The Forget-me-not is found in great perfection on the banks of a
small stream near Luxembourg, in France. The stream is called the
Fairies’ Bath, and its banks are the favourite resort of festive
parties.
* * * * *
That blue and bright-eyed floweret of the brook,
Hope’s gentle gem--the fair Forget-me-not.
_Coleridge._
* * * * *
Not on the mountain’s shelving side,
Nor in the cultivated ground,
Nor in the garden’s painted pride,
The flower I seek is found.
Where Time on sorrow’s page of gloom
Has fixed its envious lot,
Or swept the record from the tomb,
It says Forget me not.
And this is still the loveliest flower,
The fairest of the fair,
Of all that deck my lady’s bower,
Or bind her floating hair.
_Göthe._
* * * * *
Together they sate by a river’s side,
A knight and a lady gay,
And they watched the deep and eddying tide
Round a flowery islet stray.
And, “Oh! for that flower of brilliant hue,”
Said then the lady fair,
“To grace my neck with the blossoms blue
And braid my nut-brown hair!”
The knight has plunged in the whirling wave
All for his lady’s smile:
And he swims the stream with courage brave,
And he gains yon flowery isle.
And his fingers have cropped the blossoms blue,
And the prize they backward bear;
To deck his love with the brilliant hue
And braid her nut-brown hair.
But the way is long, and the current strong,
And alas for that gallant knight!
For the waves prevail, and his stout arms fail,
Though cheered by his lady’s sight.
Then the blossoms blue to the bank he threw,
Ere he sank in the eddying tide;
And “Lady, I’m gone, thine own knight true,
Forget me not,” he cried.
This farewell pledge the lady caught;
And hence, as legends say,
The flower is a sign to awaken thought
In friends who are far away.
For the lady fair of her knight so true,
Still remembered the hapless lot:
And she cherished the flower of brilliant hue,
And she braided her hair with the blossoms blue
And then called it “Forget-me-not!”
_Mant._
* * * * *
To flourish in my favourite bower,
To blossom round my cot,
I cultivate the little flower
They call Forget-me-not.
This pretty little floweret’s dye
Of soft cerulean blue,
Appears as if from Ellen’s eye
It had received its hue.
Though oceans now betwixt us roar,
Though distant be our lot,
Ellen! though we should meet no more,
Sweet maid, Forget me not!
_Anon._
* * * * *