To ----

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, gather'd 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 flow'ret is inscribed with grief, -     But let that hint of a forgotten trouble.     I pluck'd the Primrose at night's dewy noon;     Like Hope, it show'd its blossoms in the night; -     'Twas, like Endymion, watching for the Moon!     And here are Sun-flowers, 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!