The Wall-Flower.
I.
The Wall-flower—the Wall-flower,1
How beautiful it blooms !2
It gleams above the ruined tower,3
Like sunlight over tombs ;4
It sheds a halo of repose5
Around the wrecks of time.6
To beauty give the flaunting rose,7
The Wall-flower is sublime.8
II.
Flower of the solitary place !9
Gray ruin’s golden crown,10
That lendest melancholy grace11
To haunts of old renown ;12
Thou mantlest o’er the battlement,13
By strife or storm decayed ;14
And fillest up each envious rent15
Time’s canker-tooth hath made.16
III.
Thy roots outspread the ramparts o’er,17
Where, in war’s stormy day,18
Perey or Douglass ranged of yore19
Their ranks in grim array ;20
The clangour of the field is fled,21
The beacon on the hill22
No more through midnight blazes red,23
But thou art blooming still !24
IV.
Whither hath fled the choral band25
That filled the Abbey’s nave ?26
Yon dark sepulchral yew-trees stand27
O’er many a level grave.28
Tn the belfry’s crevices, the dove29
Her young brood nurseth well,30
While thou, lone flower ! dost shed above31
A sweet decaying smell.32
V.
In the season of the tulip-cup33
When blossoms clothe the trees,34
How sweet to throw the lattice up,35
And scent thee on the breeze ;36
The butterfly is then abroad,37
The bee is on the wing,38
And on the hawthorn by the road39
The linnets sit and sing.40
VI.
Sweet Wall-flower—sweet Wall-flower !41
Thou conjurest up to me,42
Full many a soft and sunny hour43
Of boyhood’s thoughtless glee ;44
When joy from out the daisies grew,45
In woodland pastures green,46
And summer skies were far more blue,47
Than since they e’er have been.48
VII.
Now autumn’s pensive voice is heard49
Amid the yellow bowers,50
The robin is the regal bird,51
And thou the queen of flowers !52
He sings on the laburnum trees,53
Amid the twilight dim,54
And Araby ne’er gave the breeze55
Such scents, as thou to him.56
VIII.
Rich is the pink, the lily gay,57
The rose is summer’s guest ;58
Bland are thy charms when these decay,59
Of flowers—first, last, and best !60
There may be gaudier on the bower,61
And statelier on the tree,62
But Wall-flower—loved Wall-flower,63
Thou art the flower for me !64