Virginian Dragon’s Head. _Dracocephalus Virginianum._
Dedicated to _St. Margaret_.
~July 21.~
_St. Praxedes._ _St. Zodicus_, Bp., A. D. 204. _St. Barhadbesciabas_,
A. D. 354. _St. Victor_, of Marseilles. _St. Arbogastus_, Bp. A. D.
678.
_Flowers._
A sensitive plant in a garden grew
And the young winds fed it with silver dew,
And it opened its fanlike leaves to the light,
And closed them beneath the kisses of night.
And the spring arose on the garden fair,
Like the spirit of love felt every where;
And each flower and shrub on earth’s dark breast,
Rose from the dreams of its wintry rest.
But none ever trembled and panted with bliss,
In the garden, the field, or the wilderness,
Like a doe in the noontide with love’s sweet want,
As the companionless sensitive plant.
The snowdrop, and then the violet,
Arose from the ground with warm rain wet,
And their breath was mixed with fresh odour, sent,
From the turf, like the voice and the instrument.
Then the pied windflowers, and the tulip tall,
And narcissi, the fairest among them all,
Who gaze on their eyes in the stream’s recess,
Till they die of their own dear loveliness.
And the naiadlike lily of the vale,
Whom youth makes so fair, and passion so pale,
That the light of its tremulous bells is seen,
Through their pavilions of tender green.
And the hyacinth purple, 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.
And the rose, like a nymph to the bath addrest,
Which unveiled the depth of her glowing breast,
Till, fold after fold, to the fainting air
The soul of her beauty and love lay bare.
And the wandlike lily, which lifted up,
As a Moenad, its moonlight-coloured cup,
Till the fiery star, which is its eye,
Gazed through clear dew on the tender sky.
And the jessamine faint, and sweet tuberose,
The sweetest flower, for scent, that blows;
And all rare blossoms from every clime,
Grew in that garden in perfect prime.
_Shelley._
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