I see all my sister flow’rets fade,

In their blighted beauty around me lying;

Yet only of me ’tis sung, and said—

Alas! for the rose—so early dying!”

“Be not displeased with us, loveliest one”—

Said a fair young maiden standing by her—

“ ’Tis not that thy race is so swiftly run,

But we wish that thy destiny were higher:

We see all the flowers around us die—

And deem it their fate; but thee, their sovereign,