A GARLAND OF POEMS. THE USE OF FLOWERS. GOD might have bade the earth bring forth The oak-tree and the cedar-tree, We might have had enough-enough And yet have had no flowers. The ore within the mountain mine The clouds might give abundant rain, Then wherefore, wherefore were they made, Upspringing day and night; Springing in valleys green and low, Our outward life requires them not, To comfort man, to whisper hope For Who so careth for the flowers MARY HOWITT. THE ANT AND THE BUTTERFLY. A BUTTERFLY, who, all the day, Address'd his reptile brother : "I wonder you can spend your time, When Nature's sweets are in their prime, In delving or in hoarding; Why not, like me, to-day employ, That earth is now affording? |