And Daffodillies fill their cups with tears,
To strew the laureat hearse where Lycid lies.”
The Daffodil is supposed to be one of the flowers which Proserpine was gathering when she was seized and carried off by Pluto (Dis). The Earth, at the instigation of Jupiter, had brought forth the lovely blossom for a lure to the unsuspecting maid. An old Greek hymn contains the tale:—
“In Sicilia’s ever-blooming shade,
When playful Proserpine from Ceres strayed,
Led with unwary step, the virgin train
O’er Ætna’s steeps and Enna’s flow’ry plain
Pluck’d with fair hand the silver-blossom’d bower,
And purpled mead,—herself a fairer flower;
Sudden, unseen, amidst the twilight glade,