_Who, until her Sister, honoured the Author by walking with him in the
Evening_.
Adieu! dear girl! if we are doom’d to part,
Take with thee, take, the blessing of this heart,
Due to thy gentle mind, and cultur’d sense;
Perhaps ’twill please, but, sure, can’t give offence.
Tho’, when we met, the solar ray was gone,
And on our steps the moon-beam only shone,
Yet well I mark’d thy form and native grace,
And all the sweet expression of thy face;
And pleas’d I listen’d as thy accents fell,
Accents that spoke a feeling mind so well
Lo, when the birds repose at ev’ning hour,
The sweetest of them carols from her bow’r!
So, when the dews the garden’s fragrance close,
The night-flow’r[19] blooms, the rival of the rose!
[19] One of the creeping cereuses, usually known by the name of the
night-flower, is said to be as grand and as beautiful as any in the
vegetable system. It begins to open in the evening, about seven
o’clock; is in perfection about eleven, perfuming the air to a
considerable distance, and fades about four in the morning.