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Article THE WORK OF NATURE IN THE MONTHS. ← Page 5 of 6 →
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The Work Of Nature In The Months.
The earth is hard , the trees are bare ,. The frozen robin drops ; The wind is whistling everywhere , The crystal brooklet stops ; But I have found a grassy mound , A green and sheltered spot , And there peeps up a primrose cup , With blue ' Forget-me-not . ' Oh great to me the joy to see The spring buds opening now ; To find the leaves that May-day weavas , On old December ' s brow .
They say the world does much to make The heart a frosted thing , — That selfish Age will kill and break The garlands of our spring , —¦ That stark and cold we wail and sigh When wintry snows begin ; That all Hope ' s lovely blossoms die , And chilling winds set in .
¦ But let me pray , that come what may , To desolate this breast , Some wild flower ' s bloom will yet illume , And be its angel guest ; For who would live when life could give No feeling touched with youth , — No May-day gleams to light with dreams , December's freezing truth !"
How lovingly then do we welcome these harbingers of Spring ; all of us , at least , that can draw lessons of Hope and Thankfulness to the Giver of these good gifts ; and very grateful should we be that it has been given to us to read these lessons aright , for there are those of whom our Poet has said" A Primrose , by the river ' s brim , A yellow Primrose was to him ,
And nothing more !'• "Which , by the way , reminds us to notice that the Primrose is not truly yellow but a very delicate green ; so , at least , say artists , and Edmund Spenser bears them out" A crimson coronet With daffodils and damask roses set ; Bay-leaves betweene , And Primroses greene Embellish the sweet violet . "
Our fuller attention must be given , later to our 'Prima Rosa , when it is in fuller bloom , but it is most precious to us now that sometimes even thus early" The woodman in his pathway down the wood Crushes with hasty feet full many a bud Of early primrose ; yet if timely spied Shelter'd some old hulf-rotten stump beside . The sight will cheer his solitary hour , And urge his feet , to strive and save the flower . "
Of the Forget-me-not , which Eliza Cook mentions as quoted above , and of which , together with its traditional meaning , we have spoken at length in an earlier number , Agnes Strickland says that , when in exile , Henry of Lancaster gave it to the Duches-i of Bretagne , aud made it the symbol of remembrance , placing it on his collar of S . S . with 'he initial letter of his watchword , " Souveigne vous de may . " Our old friends , the Daisy , Groundsel , and the various kinds of Dead Nettle are as ^ ual blooming for us , often despised because always at hand —• " wrongfully , " we Maintain , for hear what John Euskin says : —
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Work Of Nature In The Months.
The earth is hard , the trees are bare ,. The frozen robin drops ; The wind is whistling everywhere , The crystal brooklet stops ; But I have found a grassy mound , A green and sheltered spot , And there peeps up a primrose cup , With blue ' Forget-me-not . ' Oh great to me the joy to see The spring buds opening now ; To find the leaves that May-day weavas , On old December ' s brow .
They say the world does much to make The heart a frosted thing , — That selfish Age will kill and break The garlands of our spring , —¦ That stark and cold we wail and sigh When wintry snows begin ; That all Hope ' s lovely blossoms die , And chilling winds set in .
¦ But let me pray , that come what may , To desolate this breast , Some wild flower ' s bloom will yet illume , And be its angel guest ; For who would live when life could give No feeling touched with youth , — No May-day gleams to light with dreams , December's freezing truth !"
How lovingly then do we welcome these harbingers of Spring ; all of us , at least , that can draw lessons of Hope and Thankfulness to the Giver of these good gifts ; and very grateful should we be that it has been given to us to read these lessons aright , for there are those of whom our Poet has said" A Primrose , by the river ' s brim , A yellow Primrose was to him ,
And nothing more !'• "Which , by the way , reminds us to notice that the Primrose is not truly yellow but a very delicate green ; so , at least , say artists , and Edmund Spenser bears them out" A crimson coronet With daffodils and damask roses set ; Bay-leaves betweene , And Primroses greene Embellish the sweet violet . "
Our fuller attention must be given , later to our 'Prima Rosa , when it is in fuller bloom , but it is most precious to us now that sometimes even thus early" The woodman in his pathway down the wood Crushes with hasty feet full many a bud Of early primrose ; yet if timely spied Shelter'd some old hulf-rotten stump beside . The sight will cheer his solitary hour , And urge his feet , to strive and save the flower . "
Of the Forget-me-not , which Eliza Cook mentions as quoted above , and of which , together with its traditional meaning , we have spoken at length in an earlier number , Agnes Strickland says that , when in exile , Henry of Lancaster gave it to the Duches-i of Bretagne , aud made it the symbol of remembrance , placing it on his collar of S . S . with 'he initial letter of his watchword , " Souveigne vous de may . " Our old friends , the Daisy , Groundsel , and the various kinds of Dead Nettle are as ^ ual blooming for us , often despised because always at hand —• " wrongfully , " we Maintain , for hear what John Euskin says : —