Page:Voice of Flowers.pdf/34

32

infant Spring, with a glance of fear, Doth tread in the steps of the Winter drear, And beckon the streams on the frosted plains To loosen the links of their icy chains, Ere yet the Violet hath dar'd to show Its timid head through the wasting snow, While Tulip and Dahlia on couches deep, In their bulbous night-caps, are fast asleep, Like beauties fatigued at the midnight rout, Who shut the sun, with their curtains, out,— At the earliest call of the blue-bird sweet, I venture forth through the mist and sleet, And haste to bring, with my simple cheer, The first glad wish of the new born year. But now from Autumn, a boon I bear, Of varied tint, and a perfume rare,— Taste hath wander'd through grove and bower, The bird to win, and to cull the flower, And to gather them close in a charmed ring, And to bind them fast with a silken string; Friendship doth offer the gift to thee,— Pure and warm may its guerdon be.