Moore.
If all the world and love were young,
And truth in every shepherd’s tongue,
These pleasures might my passions move,
To live with thee and be thy love.
So fading flowers in every field,
To winter floods their treasures yield;
A honeyed tongue, a heart of gall,
Is fancy’s spring, but sorrow’s fall.
Sir Walter Raleigh.
Instability and change are written
On us and all our works. The loveliest things,
When full of promise, oftentimes are smitten;
And sweetest roses foster hidden stings.
The world, if loved too well, doth ever pall,
And the poor fool who set his heart thereon
Is doomed to see his hope in ruins fall,
Its frail foundation undermined and gone.
Dahlia.... Elegance and Dignity.
The Dahlia is a native of South America, but is now extensively cultivated in Europe and North America. The shrub grows to a considerable height, and the flowers are large and beautiful. The most common colours are crimson and purple. No more appropriate emblem of elegance and dignity of carriage could have been selected. These qualities strike us at the first view of the Dahlia.
I loved thee for thy high-born grace,
Thy deep and lustrous eye—
For the sweet meaning of thy brow,
And for thy bearing high.
I loved thee for thy stainless truth,
Thy thirst for higher things,
For all that to our common lot
A better temper brings.
And are they not all thine—still thine?
Is not thy heart as true?
Holds not thy step its noble grace?
Thy cheek its dainty hue?
And have I not an ear to hear?
And a cloudless eye to see—
And a thirst for beautiful human thought,
That first was stirred by thee?
Why, a stranger—when he sees her,
In the street even smileth stilly,
Just as you would at a lily.