Let a bright and lovely vision from our sunny Southern bowers,
A dream of joy elysian be awakened by these flowers,
For a wealth of bliss is filling all the loveliness they wear,
And their tiny leaves are thrilling with the messages they bear.
Where the velvet bud uncloses to the morning’s golden beam
Be thy life like summer roses floating o’er a summer stream,
And amid its sunny bowers may a gentle heart be thine,
To bring thee back the flowers which thou hast thrown o’er mine.
Yes—a gentle heart to bring them—leaves from out the distant past,
O’er thy path in life to fling them—all unfading to the last,