LADIES' DELIGHT.

Viola Tricolor.

LANGUAGE-FORGET ME NOT.

I HEARD thy low-whispered farewell, love,
And silently saw thee depart;

Ay, silent; for how could words tell, love,
The sorrow that swelled in my heart?
They could not, O language is faint

When passion's devotion would speak;
Light pleasure and pain it may paint;

But with feelings like ours it is weak. Yet tearless and mute though I stood, love,

Thy last words are thrilling me yet,

And my heart would have breathed, if it could, love, And murmured, “O, do not forget!”

MRS. OSGOOD.

ANSWER.

To me, through every season, dearest,
In every scene, by day and night,
Thou present to my mind appearest,
A quenchless star, forever bright!
My solitary, sole delight!

Alone in grove-by shore

I think of thee!

-

at sea

E. M. MOIR.

O

LADIES' SLIPPER.

Cypripedium.

LANGUAGE - CAPRICIOUSNESS.

I CANNOT love him:

Yet I suppose him virtuous, know him noble ;
Of great estate, of fresh and stainless youth;
In voices well divulged, free, learned, and valiant,
And in dimensions, and the shape of nature,
A gracious person; but yet I cannot love him.
He might have took his answer long ago.

SHAKSPEARE.

But who can tell what cause had that fair maid
To use him so, that loved her so well?
Or who with blame can justly her upbraid
For loving not? for who can love compel?
And sooth to say, it is foolhardy thing
Rashly to whiten creatures so divine;
For demigods they be, and first did spring

From heaven, though graft in frailness feminine.

It is not virtue, wisdom, valor, wit,

SPENSER.

Strength, comeliness of shape, or amplest merit,
That woman's love can win ;

But what is, hard it is to say, harder to hit.

MILTON.

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind;
And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.

SHAKSPEARE.

LARKSPUR.

Delphinium.

LANGUAGE-FICKLENESS.

FAREWELL! 'tis mine to prove
Of blighted hopes the pain;
But O, believe I cannot love
As I have loved — again!

Farewell! 'tis thine to change,
Forget, be false, be free;

But know, wherever thou shalt range,
That none can love like me!

Did woman's charms thy youth beguile,
And did the fair one faithless prove?
Hath she betrayed thee with her smile,
And sold thy love?

Live! 'twas a false, bewildering fire;
Too often love's insidious dart

Thrills the fond soul with wild desire,
But kills the heart.

Thou yet shalt know how sweet, how dear
To gaze on listening beauty's eye;
To ask, and pause in hope and fear
Till she reply.

A nobler flame shall warm thy breast,
A brighter maiden faithful prove;
Thy youth, thy age, shall yet be blest
In woman's love.

TUPPER.

MONTGOMERY.

LAUREL.

Rhododendron.

LANGUAGE FAME.

Ques. WHAT shall I do, lest life in silence pass? -
And if it do,

Ans.

And never prompt the bray of noisy brass,
What need'st thou rue?

Remember aye the ocean deeps are mute,
The shallows roar:

Worth is the ocean; fame is but the bruit
Along the shore.

Ques. What shall I do to be forever known?
Ans.

Thy duty ever.

Ques. This did full many who yet sleep unknown.
Ans.
O, never, never.

Think'st thou, perchance, that they remain un-
known

Whom thou know'st not?

By angel trumps in heaven their praise is blown :
Divine their lot.

Ques. What shall I do to have eternal life?

The simple dues with which the day is rife
Yea, with thy might.

Ere perfect sphere of action thou devise
Will life be fled;

While he who ever acts as conscience cries

Shall live, though dead.

POEMS OF YOUTH.

With all its hopes, cares, fears, and loving thought; No wish beyond the home where thou shouldst enter; Ever anew to find thy presence brought

My life's best joy.

I would be thine!

Not passion's wild emotion

To show thee, fitful as the changing wind,
But with a still, deep, fervent life-devotion,
To be to thee the helpmeet God designed:
For this would I be thine!

Forever thine, whate'er this world betide,
In youth, in age, thine own, forever thine.

ANON.

A. A. WATTS.