Part 10 (1/2)
Soft-throated South, breathing of summer's ease, Sweet breath, whereof the violet's life is made!
--GEORGE PARSONS LATHROP.
I heard the laughter of a brook, A tiny brook, that babbled through The fields and told the tales it took Of bird and reed and water-thing; And stooping low I saw a gleam Of violets that nodded to Their gay reflection in the stream.
--MARY F. FAXON.
More shy than the shy violet Hiding when the wind doth pa.s.s.
--ELLEN M. CORTISSOZ.
The ferns bend low, the gra.s.ses lean, As doing homage to a queen, The fairest queens that ever smiled On cavalier, or king beguiled: Oh, sweet and tender violets!
--M. D. TOLMAN.
I go to the river there below Where in bunches the violets grow, And sun and shadow meet.
--HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW.
Beneath Peep the blue violets out of black loam.
--RALPH WALDO EMERSON.
The violet varies from the lily as far As oak from elm.
--ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON.
Lover of each gracious thing Which makes glad the summer-tide, From the daisies cl.u.s.tering And the violets, purple-eyed, To those shy and hidden blooms Which in forest coverts stay.
--ANONYMOUS.
I thread the rustling ranks, that hide Their misty violet treasure.
--BAYARD TAYLOR.
But when the green world buds to blossoming, Keep violets for the spring, and love for youth, Love that should dwell with beauty, mirth and hope: Or if a later, sadder love be born, Let this not look for grace beyond its scope, But give itself.
--CHRISTINA ROSSETTI.
And now, when summer south-winds blow And brier and harebell bloom again, I tread the pleasant paths we trod, I see the violet-sprinkled sod Whereon she leaned.
--JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER.
Sisters, ere the moon is set, Twine the white, white violet, While the dews are on it yet, With the myriad-starred mignonette.
--FORCEYTHE WILSON.
Voluptuous bloom and fragrance rare The summer to its rose may bring; Far sweeter to the wooing air The hidden violet of the spring.
--BAYARD TAYLOR.
And near the snow-drop's tender white and green, The violet in its screen.