FLORAL POESY.

INTRODUCTION.

HE most charming of all gifts is one of flowers. A Queen may (and we rejoice to say our own beloved Sovereign often does) give them to her subjects; and the poorest subject may offer them to a monarch.

They are the representatives of all times and of all nations; the pledges of all feelings. The infant plays with them, and gains his first idea of beauty from their blossoms; the lover gives them to his beloved; the bride wears them. We offer them to our beloved dead; dynasties are represented by a flower; nations adopt them as their emblems. A leaf is the crown of valour. Wars have been fought, alas! in merry England, under a floral emblem; universal is their hold on human sym pathies; universal their language.

Floral Poesy is, therefore, the most appropriate of all presents; and, in giving this title to a language of flowers, and a collection of charming poems on them, we believe we have not been guilty of a misnomer.

B

Hood, in the following pretty lines, has afforded us an admirable introduction to our poetical Posie :

"Welcome, dear Heart, and a most kind good-morrow;
The day is gloomy, but our looks shall shine:-
Flowers I have none to give thee, but I borrow
Their sweetness in a verse to speak for thine.

"Here are red Roses, gathered at thy cheeks,-
The white were all too happy to look white:
For love the Rose, for faith the Lily speaks;
It withers in false hands, but here 'tis bright!

"Dost love sweet Hyacinth? Its scented leaf
Curls manifold,—all love's delights blow double:
'Tis said this floweret is inscribed with grief,-
But let that hint of a forgotten trouble.

"I plucked the Primrose at night's dewy noon;
Like Hope, it showed its blossoms in the night;-
'Twas, like Endymion, watching for the Moon!
And here are Sunflowers, amorous of light!

"These golden Buttercups are April's seal,-
The Daisy stars her constellations be:
These grew so lowly, I was forced to kneel,
Therefore I pluck no Daisies but for thee!

"Here's Daisies for the morn, Primrose for gloom,
Pansies and Roses for the noontide hours:-
A wight once made a dial of their bloom,-
So may thy life be measured out by flowers !"

Our readers will perceive that the symbolism and language of flowers were not unknown to the poet. Mrs. Browning says truly and charmingly :

"Love's language may be talked with these;
To work out choicest sentences,

No blossoms can be meeter;

And, such being used in Eastern bowers,
Young maids may wonder if the flowers
Or meanings be the sweeter.

"And such being strewn before a bride,
Her little foot may turn aside,

Their longer bloom decreeing,

Unless some voice's whispered sound
Should make her gaze upon the ground
Too earnestly for seeing.

"And such being scattered on a grave,
Whoever mourneth there, may have
A type which seemeth worthy
Of that fair body hid below,
Which bloomed on earth a time ago,
Then perished as the earthy.

"And such being wreathed for worldly feast,
Across the brimming cup some guest
Their rainbow colours viewing,

May feel them, with a silent start,
The covenant his childish heart

With Nature made,-renewing."

And Leigh Hunt playfully declares :

"An exquisite invention this,

Worthy of love's most honied kiss,
This art of writing billet doux

In buds and odours, and bright hues;
In saying all one feels and thinks
In clever daffodils and pinks,
Uttering (as well as silence may)
The sweetest words the sweetest way:
How fit, too, for the lady's bosom,
The place where billet doux repose 'em.

"How charming in some rural spot,
Combining love with garden plot,
At once to cultivate one's flowers,
And one's epistolary powers,

Growing one's own choice words and fancies
In orange-tubs and beds of pansies;
One's sighs and passionate declarations
In odorous rhet'ric of carnations;
Seeing how far one's stocks will reach ;
Taking due care one's flowers of speech
To guard from blight as well as bathos,
And watering every day one's pathos.