Uncheck'd by storms, unchill'd by cold, "Wan herald of the coming year," We see her pennon fair unfold, While yet the skies are dark and drear; And streaming on the wintry gale, We bid her spotless banner hail. Her hardiest veteran Flora sends, To plant her standard firmly there : Till, like some shallop's snow-white sail, It floats upon the icy gale. Soon, numerous as the countless train, Come then, thy signal-flag display, And on the breeze thy streamers fling, Fair as the flowers of sorrow's day, That in the mourner's pathway spring, To cheer him while the storm prevails, And bring the hope of milder gales. Primula vulgaris. Common Primrose. Blossom tube cylindrical. Mouth open. Stem within the tube. Capsule one-celled, cylindrical, many-seeded, opening with ten teeth. Leaves wrinkled, toothed. Border of the blossom flat.- Withering. TO AN EARLY PRIMROSE. KIRKE WHITE. MILD offspring of a dark and sullen sire! And cradled in the winds. Thee, when young Spring first question'd winter's sway, And dared the sturdy blusterer to the fight; Thee on this bank he threw, To mark his victory. In this low vale, the promise of the year, Thy tender elegance. So virtue blooms, brought forth amid the storms Of chill adversity, in some lone walk Of life she rears her head, Obscure and unobserved; TO A FRIEND GATHERING WILD FLOWERS. While every bleaching breeze that on her blows, And hardens her to bear Serene the ills of life. 59 TO A FRIEND GATHERING WILD FLOWERS. E. Y. D. R. WHERE thorny ramparts seem to chide And thus, Maria, as the wheel Of life leads on the changing hour, When fortune shows a dubious sky, The east may smile, the west may lower: In pity to its child below, If Heaven the cup of comfort sour, But shun, ah, shun the sweets that grow But seek thy sweets on holier ground, |