HERE is a flower, a little flower,
With silver crest and golden eye,
That welcomes every changing hour,
And weathers every sky.
The prouder beauties of the field
In gay but quick succession shine, Race after race their honours yield, They flourish and decline.
But this small flower, to Nature dear,
While moons and stars their courses run, Wreathes the whole circle of the year, Companion of the sun.
It smiles upon the lap of May,
To sultry August spreads its charms,
Lights pale October on his way,
And twines December's arms.
The purple heath and golden broom
On moory mountains catch the gale;
O'er lawns the lily sheds perfume,
The violet in the vale.
But this bold flow'ret climbs the hill,
Hides in the forest, haunts the glen,
Plays on the margin of the rill,
Peeps round the fox's den.
Within the garden's cultured round
It shares the sweet carnation's bed;
And blooms on consecrated ground
In honour of the dead.
The lambkin crops its crimson gem,
The wild bee murmurs on its breast,
The blue-fly bends its pensile stem
Light o'er the skylark's nest.
ARVULUS in pratis flos est: nitor ardet ocelli
Aureus, argento purior albet apex:
Ille vices horae dubias cuiusqve salutat,
Aspectumqve omnem scit tolerare Iovis.
Qvae risu decorat laetante superbior agrum,
Florea gens celeri fulget abitqve vice:
Stirps seqvitur stirpem, flos flori fortior instat,
Qviqve in honore fuit nunc sine honore iacet.
Attamen haec florum Matri dilecta propago,
Cynthia dum cursum volvit et astra manent,
Innectit foliis anni revolubilis orbem,
Et comes it rapidae solis ubiqve fugae.
In gremio ridet Maii sincera voluptas,
Explicat Augusti sole calente decus;
Non alia Octobri lampas praelucet eunti,
Non alia cingi fronde December amat.
Montibus in vastis vaga flamina captet ericae
Purpura, et auratis lenta genista comis ;
Pascua odorato conspergant lilia flatu,
Et violam suavem concava vallis alat;
Flosculus hic audax colles ascendit, opaco
Conditur in saltu, tesqva reducta tenet,
Ludit ad inclusum praetexto margine rivum,
Vulpis et effossum stat vigil ante larem.
Qva cultura novis vestit splendoribus hortos,
Non alia, fragrans ac rosa, parte viget:
Gaudet et inferiis sanctos decorare recessus
Simplicibus, morti ne suus absit honos.
Puniceum teneris calycem depascitur agna
Dentibus; in gremio fulva susurrat apis ;
Musca laborantem gracili sub pondere culmum
Flectit, ubi parvam finxit alauda domum.
'Tis Flora's page : in every place,
In every season, fresh and fair,
It opens with perennial grace,
And blossoms everywhere.
On waste and woodland, rock and plain,
Its humble buds unheeded rise:
The rose has but a summer-reign;
The daisy never dies.
ENTO the Silent Land!
Ah, who shall lead us thither?
Clouds in the evening sky more darkly gather, And shattered wrecks lie thicker on the strand. Who leads us with a gentle hand
Thither, oh thither,
Into the Silent Land?
Into the Silent Land!
To you, ye boundless regions
Of all perfection, tender morning visions
Of beauteous souls, eternity's own band.
Who in life's battle firm doth stand,
Shall bear hope's tender blossoms
Into the Silent Land.
O Land! O Land!
For all the broken-hearted
The mildest herald by our fate allotted
Beckons, and with inverted torch doth stand,
To lead us with a gentle hand
Into the land of all the great departed,
Into the Silent Land.
LONGFELLOW (from the German of SALIS).
Gemma, deae famulata suae, qvocumqve sub axe,
Qvolibet innascens pulchra recensqve solo,
Pandit inexhaustos anno redeunte nitores:
Exigua nusqvam rus sine belle viret.
Per scopulos solumqve nemus perqve aeqvora campi
Illa levat tenerum vix bene visa caput.
Non nisi in aestivo regnat rosa lumine solis;
Bellis habet domita morte perenne decus.
Νήνεμον ζητοῦμεν αἶαν· τίς πρόεισιν ἡγεμών ;
ἑσπέρα μελαντέροισι νέφεσι συσκιάζεται,
πανταχῆ δ ̓ ἔρρωγεν ἀκτὴ ναυτικοῖς ἐρειπίοις·
νήνεμον τίς ἡμὶν εἰς γῆν πρευμενῶς ἡγήσεται ;
νηνέμους ποθοῦμεν ἕδρας, παντελεῖς, ἀτέρμονας,
ἀφθίτων καλῶν θ ̓ ἑῷα πνευμάτων ὀνείρατα
ὃς γὰρ ἐν βίου μάχαισιν ἔμπεδον στήσῃ πόδα,
νήνεμον φέρει πρὸς αἶαν ἐλπίδος φίλον γάνος.
χαῖρε γαῖα χαῖρ ̓· ὁ γάρ τοι πᾶσι τοῖς δυσαθλίοις
ἠπιώτατος βροτοῖσιν ἐκ θεῶν πεπρωμένος
προσκαλεῖ κήρυξ, σταθείς τε δᾷδ ̓ ἄνω κάτω τρέπων
χειρὶ μαλθακῇ προφαίνει πρευμενῶς ἡγούμενος
τῶν πάλαι κλεινῶν ἐς ἀκτὴν νηνέμου τ' αἴας πέδον.
ANY a year is in its grave,
Since I crossed this restless wave;
And the evening, fair as ever,
Shines on ruin, rock, and river.
Then, in the same boat, beside,
Sat two comrades old and tried ;
One with all a father's truth,
One with all the fire of youth.
One on earth in silence wrought,
And his grave in silence sought:
But the younger, brighter form
Passed in battle and in storm.
So, whene'er I turn my eye
Back upon the days gone by,
Saddening thoughts of friends come o'er me,
Friends, who closed their course before me.
But what binds us, friend to friend,
Save that soul with soul can blend?
Soul-like were those hours of yore:
Let us walk in soul once more.
Take, O boatman, thrice thy fee;
Take: I give it willingly:
For, invisible to thee,
Spirits twain have crossed with me.
LONGFELLOW (from UHLAND).
IS a very good world that we live in
To lend, or to spend, or to give in ;
But to beg, or to borrow, or get at one's own,
'Tis the very worst world that ever was known.
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