ADONIS' COUCH. BY JOHN KEATS. On a silken couch of rosy pride, In midst of all, there lay a sleeping youth Fell sleek about him in a thousand folds- Of neck and shoulder, nor the tending swerve The creeper, mellowing for an autumn blush; And virgin's-bower, trailing airily; In through the woven roof, and fluttering wise, FLOWER FANTASIES. BY LOUISA ANN TWAMLEY. On! there is music to the spirit's ear Heaved by the rose's bosom to the air And there is poetry in every leaf, Whose blush speaks pleasure, or whose tears tell grief. There is romance in every stem that bends Beneath the wind that rustles in the tall And 'mid their branches whistlingly doth blow, We know they sleep; at eve the Daisy small Her blush-tipp'd rays; and the wave's empress* shuts Her star-lit cup: And each fair flower, though some with open eye, Listens and yields to nature's lullaby. The Water Lily. The nodding Foxglove slumbers on her stalk; Seem poised still and sleepily, until With singing-birds and beams of rosy light, The drowsy Poppy, who has all the day His scarlet mantle, folds it closely now And, lull'd by soothing balm that his own leaves distil, Sleeps while the night-dews fall upon the moon. lit hill. The fragrance is the spirit of the flower, Is our ethereal portion. We can ne'er One more than other. Passing sweet must be How happily ye live in the pure light Do ye not feel how deeply-wondrously Our checker'd sojourn on this weary earth, Whose wildest, dreariest spots to FLOWERS have given birth? Do not ye joy to know the pure delight Upon your glorious forms?-Are ye not glad Which our enraptured wonder ever tells While poring o'er the wealth that in ye dwells: That wealth of thought, of beauty, and of love, Which may be found In each small common herb that springs from out The teeming ground? Do not ye feel that ye do deeply bless Our harsher souls by your dear loveliness? Oh! if 'tis given unto ye to know The thrilling power Of memories and thoughts that can be read How ye must all rejoice beneath each look We love its silent language: strong, though still, But all-pervading harmony:-it breathes But floats around us, as, in happy dream, So, love of nature's harmony can bless |