Poems of Felicia Hemans in The Amulet, 1828/The Dial of Flowers

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This poem was added to later editions of Forest Sanctuary and Songs of the Affections

2936192Poems of Felicia Hemans in The Amulet, 1828The Dial of Flowers1827Felicia Hemans


THE DIAL OF FLOWERS.*[1]


BY MRS. HEMANS.


'Twas a lovely thought to mark the hours
    As they floated in light away,
By the opening and the folding flowers
    That laugh to the summer's day.

Thus had each moment its own rich hue
    And its graceful cup or bell,
In whose colour'd vase might sleep the dew,
    Like a pearl in an ocean-shell.

To such sweet signs might the time have flow'd
    In a golden current on,
Ere from the garden, man's first abode,
    The glorious guests were gone.


So might the days have been brightly told—
    Those days of song and dreams—
When shepherds gather'd their flocks of old,
    By the blue Arcadian streams.

So in those isles of delight, that rest
    Far off in a breezeless main,
Which many a bark, with a weary quest,
    Hath sought but still in vain.

Yet is not life, in its real flight,
    Mark'd thus—even thus—on earth,
By the closing of one hope's delight,
    And another's gentle birth?

Oh! let us live, so that flower by flower,
    Shutting in turn, may leave
A lingerer still for the sun-set hour,
    A charm for the shaded eve.

  1. * This dial was, I believe, formed by Linnæus, and marked the hours by the opening and closing, at regular intervals, of the flowers arranged in it.