Poems (Osgood)/Garden Gossip

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4444645Poems — Garden GossipFrances Sargent Osgood

GARDEN GOSSIP,
Accounting for the coolness between the lily and violet.

"I will tell you a secret!" the honey-bee said,
To a violet drooping her dew-laden head;
"The lily's in love! for she listen'd last night,
While her sisters all slept in the holy moonlight,
To a zephyr that just had been rocking the rose,
Where, hidden, I hearken'd in seeming repose.

"I would not betray her to any but you;
But the secret is safe with a spirit so true,
It will rest in your bosom in silence profound."
The violet bent her blue eye to the ground;
A tear and a smile in her loving look lay,
While the light-wingéd gossip went whirring away.

"I will tell you a secret!" the honey-bee said,
And the young lily lifted her beautiful head;
"The violet thinks, with her timid blue eye,
To pass for a blossom enchantingly shy,
But for all her sweet manners, so modest and pure,
She gossips with every gay bird that sings to her.

"Now let me advise you, sweet flower! as a friend,
Oh! ne'er to such beings your confidence lend;
It grieves me to see one, all guileless like you,
Thus wronging a spirit so trustful and true:
But not for the world, love, my secret betray!"
And the little light gossip went buzzing away.

A blush in the lily's cheek trembled and fled;
"I'm sorry he told me," she tenderly said;
"If I mayn't trust the violet, pure as she seems,
I must fold in my own heart my beautiful dreams!"
Was the mischief well managed? Fair lady, is't true?
Did the light garden gossip take lessons of you?