Two children wandered o’er one plain together,
Like beauteous planets, shot from some new lair;
Proud flowers grew up, exulting in fair weather,
Tendered their sweets, and twined their glowing hair:
Some lovelier, but more lonely, lay enshrined,
Whispering the affable breath of modesty:
I marked the children; these, they oft entwined
About their locks, and thought them fair as shy:
Heedless, they trampled o’er the gaudy flowers,
Whose larger plenty paved the ensuing way:
But, soon, alas! you might well count the hours
By the few lilies, hidden far away.
At length the wanderers passed a river’s ford,
One kept his primrose wealth, one cull’d new hoard.