POETICAL AMARANTH.

ANON.

IMMORTAL Amaranth, a flower which once
In Paradise, fast by the tree of life,

Began to bloom, but soon for man's offence

To heaven removed, where first it grew, there grows And flowers aloft, shading the fount of life

And where the river of bliss through midst of heaven Rolls o'er Elysian flowers her amber stream;

With these, that never fade, the spirits elect

Bind their resplendent locks, enwreathed with beams;
Now in loose garlands, thick thrown off, the bright
Pavement, that like a sea of jasper shone,
Impurpled with celestial Roses, smiled.

TO THE WILD AMARANTH.

ANON.

THE Rose, that gave its perfume to the gale,
And triumph'd for an hour, in gay parade,
Pride of Damascus, bright imperial flower,
Was born to fade!

Shorn of its bloom, and rifled of its power,
Scared by the blast, and scatter'd in the vale!

So youth shall wither, beauty pass away!
The bloom of health, the flush of mantling pride,
Nor wealth, nor skill, nor eloquence, can save

From swift decay!

Beauty and youth are dust to dust allied,
And time returns its tribute to the grave!

Pale, unobtrusive tenant of the field!
Thy fair, unsullied form shall still remain,
'Mid summer's heat and autumn's chill career,
And winter's reign;

E'en the first honours of the floral year
To thee alone shall gay Narcissus yield.

Fair emblem art thou of the pious breast! Like thee, unfading flower, shall virtue bloom, When youth and all its bustling pride repose Deep in the tomb!

When beauty's cheek shall wither like the Rose, And beauty's sparkling eye shall be at rest!

THE ALOE.

THE aloe is made the emblem of acute sorrow, on account of its painful bitterness. The bitter of the aloe affects the body, that of affliction reaches the soul.

SORROW that locks up the struggling heart.

AKENSIDE.

If you do sorrow at my grief in love,
By giving love your sorrow and my grief
Were both extermined.

SHAKSPEARE.

BESIDES, you know,

Prosperity's the very bond of love;

Whose fresh complexion, and whose heart together,

Affliction alters.

WINTER'S TALE.

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THE WHITE JASMINE.

THE beauty of this unassuming flower is even surpassed by its delightful odour; may we thus always find loveliness accompanied by amiability!

AND brides, as delicate and fair

As the white jasmine flowers they wear.

T. MOORE.

THE jessamine, with which the queen of flowers
To charm her god, adorns his favourite bowers;
Which brides by the plain hand of neatness drest,
Unenvied rival! wear upon their breast;
Sweet as the incense of the morn, and chaste
As the pure zone which circles Dian's waist.

CHURCHILL.

THE VIRGIN'S-BOWER.

WHEN artifice is innocently resorted to for the purpose of giving pleasure, it may be compared to the agreeable fragrance of the sweet clematis. But when it is used to entangle the unwary, it becomes the agent of him whom Milton thus describes ;

HE, soon aware,

Each perturbation smooth'd with outward calm,
Artificer of fraud! and was the first

That practised falsehood under saintly show.

CLEMATIS, wreath afresh thy garden bower.

AND virgin's bower, trailing airily.

KEATS.

THE LAVENDER.

IN the floral emblems of the Turks, this agreeable plant represents assiduity; but the continental emblematists make it symbolical of mistrust and disunion, because it is frequently used to cover disagreeable odours.

Mistrust can only belong justly to such as are accustomed to cheat and deceive, and those need no greater curse for their misdeeds.

AND lavender, whose spikes of azure bloom
Shall be erewhile in arid bundles bound,

To lurk amidst her labours of the loom,

And crown her kerchiefs clean with mickle rare perfume.

SHENSTONE.