CHAPTER TWELVE

O Winter, thou art warm at heart; Thine every pulse doth throb and glow, And thou dost feel life’s joy and smart, Beneath the blinding snow.

Thine is the scent of bursting bud, Of April shower and violet; Thou feelest spring in all thy blood Yearn up like sweet regret. --JAMES BENJAMIN KENYON.

Bare are the places where the sweet flowers dwelt. What joy sufficient hath November felt, What profit from the violets’ day of pain? --HELEN HUNT JACKSON.

Pluck the others, but still remember Their herald out of dim December-- The morning-star of all the flowers, The pledge of daylight’s lengthened hours; Nor, midst the roses, e’er forget The virgin, virgin violet. --LORD BYRON.

Violet, little violet, Brave and true and sweet thou art. May is in thy sunny heart, Maiden violet. Gentle as the summer day, Wintry storms bring no dismay, Winsome violet. All the days to thee are spring, Thine own sunshine dost thou bring, Violet, faithful violet! --ANONYMOUS.

Only in dreams thy love comes back, And fills my soul with joy divine. Only in dreams I feel thy heart Once more beat close to mine.

Only in blissful dreams of spring, And sunny banks of violet blue, The past folds back its curtain dim And memory shows thine image true. --MELVILLE M. BIGELOW.

Winter is come again. There is no voice Of waters with beguiling for your ear, And the cool forest and the meadows green Witch not your feet away; and in the dells There are no violets. --NATHANIEL P. WILLIS.

Once more, dear friend, the violet bank we seek, And tread with joy our old familiar ways. --JESSIE CUNNINGHAM HOWDEN.

Cheek o’er cheek, and with red so tender Rippling bright through the gypsy brown, Just to see how a lady’s splendor Shone the heads of the daffodils down. Winds through the violets’ misty covering Now kissed the white ones and now the blue, Sang the redbreast over them hovering All as the world were but just made new. --ALICE CARY.

Daffodils, That come before the swallow dares, and take The winds of March with beauty; violets, dim But sweeter than the lids of Juno’s eyes Or Cytherea’s breath. --WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE.

Could you not come when woods are green? Could you not come when lambs are seen? When the primrose laughs from its child-like sleep, And the violets hide and the bluebells peep? --ALFRED AUSTIN.

Thy face is like the violet’s That to the red rose lingers close, And he who looks at thee forgets The honeyed sweetness of the rose. --JOEL BENTON.

He gave her the wildwood roses And violets for her wreath, And a whisper at last of sweet response Stole on her perfumed breath. --FRANCES L. MACE.

Come not, O sweet days, Out of yon cloudless blue, Ghosts of so many dear remembered Mays, With faces like dead lovers, who died true. Come not, lest we go seek with eyes all wet, Primrose and violet, Forgetting that they lie Deep in the mould till winter has gone by. --DINAH MARIA MULOCH CRAIK.

Blighting and blowing--blighting and blowing-- And the stones of the rivulet silent lie, And the winds in the fading woodlands cry, And the birds in the clouds are going; And the dandelion hides his gold, And their little blue tents the violets fold, And the air is gray with snowing: So life keeps coming and going. --ALICE CARY.

Dear chance it were in some rough wood-god’s lair · · · · · · To sink o’erdrowsed, and dream that wild-flowers blew Around my head and feet silently there, Till spring’s glad choir adown the valley pealed And violets trembled in the morning dew. --EDWARD DOWDEN.

The sunbeams kiss askant the sombre hill, The naked woodbine climbs the window-sill, The breaths that noon exhales are faint and chill.

Tread lightly where the dainty violets blew, Where to spring winds their soft eyes open flew; Safely they sleep the churlish winter through.

Though all life’s portals are indiced with woe, And frozen pearls are all the world can show, Feel! Nature’s breath is warm beneath the snow! --ANONYMOUS.

You’ll look at least on love’s remains, A grave’s one violet? Your look?--that pays a thousand pains. What’s death? You’ll love me yet! --ROBERT BROWNING.

Out of every shadowy nook Spirit faces seem to look, Some with smiling eyes, and some With a sad entreaty dumb; He who shepherded his sheep On the wild Sicilian steep, He above whose grave are set Sprays of Roman violet; Poets, sages,--all who wrought In the crucible of thought. --CLINTON SCOLLARD.

A fair little girl sat under a tree Sewing as long as her eyes could see; Then smoothed her work and folded it right, And said, “Dear work, good night, good night!”

The tall pink foxglove bowed his head; The violets curtsied and went to bed; And good little Lucy tied up her hair, And said, on her knees, her favorite prayer. --RICHARD MONCKTON MILNES.

My banks they are furnished with bees, Whose murmur invites one to sleep; My grottoes are shaded with trees, And my hills are white over with sheep; I seldom have met with a loss, Such health do my fountains bestow; My fountains all bordered with moss, Where the harebells and violets grow. --WILLIAM SHENSTONE.

Where the fern in gladness dances On the banks of dimpled burns, Where the streamlet’s bright wave glances When the spring returns; White as winter’s spotless drift There our faces we uplift. Still we see the stars above us, Still we trust, because they love us-- Are they flowers in the sky, Violets that have learned to fly? We believe, and hope, and trust, Know that He who made is just, And He never will forsake us While we’re white and pure of heart. Sister, maiden Sister, take us-- One of us thou art! --WILLIS BOYD ALLEN.

O violets, sweet blue eyes of the spring! --DEXTER SMITH.

Here’s the violet’s modest blue, That ’neath hawthorns hides from view. While they choose each lovely spot, The sun disdains them not; So I’ve brought the flowers to plead And win a smile from thee. --JOHN CLARE.

Last night I found the violets You sent me once across the sea; From gardens that the winter frets, In summer lands they came to me.

Still fragrant of the English earth, Still hurried from the frozen dew, To me they spoke of Christmas mirth, They spoke of England, spoke of you. --ANDREW LANG.

Darling, walk with me this morn; Let your brown tresses drink its sheen; These violets, within them worn, Of floral fays shall make you queen. --EDMUND CLARENCE STEDMAN.

O faint, delicious, springtime violet! Thine odor, like a key, Turns noiselessly in memory’s wards to let A thought of sorrow free. --WILLIAM W. STORY.

The violet, Spring’s little infant, stands Girt in thy purple swaddling-bands; On the fair tulip thou dost dote, Thou cloth’st it in a gay and party-colored coat. --ABRAHAM COWLEY.

Under the larch with its tassels wet, While the early sunbeams lingered yet, In the rosy dawn my love I met.

Under the larch when the sun was set, He came with an April violet: Forty years--and I have it yet.

Out of life with its fond regret, What have love and memory yet? Only an April violet. --ANONYMOUS.

Good-bye to the red rose that is your mouth, The tender violets that are your sigh; The sweetness that you are--that is my South-- Ah, not too soon, Enchantress, do I fly!-- Tell me good-bye! --RICHARD WATSON GILDER.

Through the deep drifts the south wind breathed its way Down to the earth’s green face; the air grew warm, The snowdrops had regained their lovely charm; The world had melted round them in a day: My full heart longed for violets. --CHARLES TENNYSON-TURNER.

The sweetness of the violet’s deep blue eyes, Kissed by the breath of heaven, seems colored by its skies. --LORD BYRON.

When we were children we would say,-- “I like the coming of the spring, I like the violets of May, I like, why, almost everything That March and May and April bring.” But now we value less the rose, And care not when the birds take wing. We like the winter and the snows. --JAMES BERRY BENSEL.

So long as there’s a sun that sets, Primroses will have their glory; Long as there are violets They will have a place in story. --WILLIAM WORDSWORTH.

Go, azure myrtle blossom, Go, violets and jasmine fair, And star the darkness of her hair, Or faint against her bosom. --GRACE GREENWOOD.

Bring the rathe primrose that forsaken dies, The tufted crow-toe, and pale jessamine, The white pink and the pansy freaked with jet, The glowing violet. --JOHN MILTON.

God does not send us strange flowers every year. When the spring winds blow o’er the pleasant places, The same dear things lift up the same fair faces-- The violet is here.

It all comes back: the odor, grace and hue; Each sweet relation of its life repeated: No blank is left, no looking-for is cheated; It is the thing we knew.

So after the death-winter it must be. God will not put strange signs in the heavenly places: The old love will look out from the old faces. Veilchen! I shall have thee! --ADELINE D. T. WHITNEY.

INDEX

The violets whisper from the shade, Which their own leaves have made. --CHRISTINA ROSSETTI.

INDEX TO AUTHORS

ALDRICH, THOMAS BAILEY, 48 ALLEN, ELIZABETH AKERS, 19, 30, 41, 111, 141, 147, 150 ALLEN, WILLIS BOYD, 94, 149, 178 ANONYMOUS, 21, 29, 42, 59, 89, 91, 103, 117, 120, 124, 129, 130, 151, 170, 175, 181 AUSTIN, ALFRED, 173 AUSTIN, JANE, 36

BAKER, ELLA M., 76 BATES, ARLO, 51 BEERS, HENRY A., 164 BENSEL, JAMES BERRY, 182 BENTON, JOEL, 173 BIGELOW, MELVILLE M., 171 BIRDSEYE, GEORGE, 121 BLAKE, HOSEA G., 20 BLAKE, MARY E., 131 BOKER, GEORGE HENRY, 66 BOSTWICK, HELEN B., 16 BOURDILLON, F. W., 72 BRADLEY, MARY, 23 BRENIZER, JOHN LUTHER, 67 BREWER, D. CHAUNCEY, 27, 63, 74, 129 BROWNING, ROBERT, 111, 176 BROWNING, ELIZABETH BARRETT, 57 BRYANT, JOHN HOWARD, 74 BRYANT, WILLIAM CULLEN, 21, 22, 28, 46, 64, 72, 81, 83, 89, 123, 144, 148, 166 BUCHANAN, ROBERT, 16, 47, 65, 93, 160 BURNETT, FRANCES HODGSON, 161 BURNS, ROBERT, 131 BYRON, LORD, 72, 158, 166, 170, 182

CAMPBELL, THOMAS, 162 CAPEN, J. TORREY, 105 CAPERN, EDWARD, 59 CAREW, THOMAS, 63, 75 CARY, ALICE, 28, 30, 47, 73, 115, 116, 132, 144, 146, 163, 172, 174 CARY, PHŒBE, 109 CARRYL, 45 CHAUCER, GEOFFREY, 36 CHOATE, ISAAC BASSETT, 31, 106, 133 CLARE, JOHN, 145, 179 COCKE, ZITELLA, 33 CONWAY, CHARLES DENYS, 150 CORTISSOZ, ELLEN M., 101 COWLEY, ABRAHAM, 180 CRAIK, DINAH MARIA MULOCK, 174 CRANCH, CHRISTOPHER P., 48, 50 CUNNINGHAM, ALLAN, 136

DE KAY, CHARLES, 49 DICKINSON, EMILY, 18 DICKINSON, MARTHA GILBERT, 107 DOBELL, SYDNEY, 109 DOBSON, AUSTIN, 45 DODGE, MARY MAPES, 52 DOWDEN, EDWARD, 175 DRAYTON, MICHAEL, 137 DUNBAR, PAUL LAURENCE, 58

EGAN, MAURICE FRANCIS, 44 EMERSON, RALPH WALDO, 32, 34, 51, 52, 77, 96, 102

FAXON, MARY F., 101, 135, 143, 158 FAY, ANNA MARIA, 35 FERGUSON, ROBERT, 30 FLETCHER, SAMUEL, 43, 137 FÖRSTER, FRIEDRICH, 68

GALLAGHER, WILLIAM D., 76 GANNETT, WILLIAM C., 134 GILDER, RICHARD WATSON, 45, 166, 181 GILLINGTON, MARY C., 121 GOETHE, JOHANN WOLFGANG VON, 79, 88, 147 GOODALE, DORA READ, 78, 135 GOODRICH, 44 GOSSE, EDMUND W., 22 GREENWOOD, GRACE, 18, 27, 42, 159, 183 GUNNISON, 124

HAMILTON, A. E., 151 HAWKER, ROBERT STEPHEN, 92 HAY, JOHN, 95 HEINE, HEINRICH, 34, 65 HERFORD, OLIVER, 152 HERRICK, ROBERT, 78, 84, 147, 165 HEWLETT, HENRY G., 71, 87 HIBBARD, GRACE, 122, 144 HOLLAND, J. G., 112 HOLMES, OLIVER WENDELL, 49, 117, 133 HOMER, 83 HOOD, THOMAS, 165 HOWDEN, JESSIE CUNNINGHAM, 172 HOWITT, MARY, 124

JACKSON, HELEN HUNT, 42, 81, 141, 143, 169 JAY, W. M. L., 96

KEATS, JOHN, 141, 158 KELLEY, ETHEL M., 31 KENYON, JAMES BENJAMIN, 41, 169 KETCHUM, N. C., 120

LAIGHTON, ALBERT, 157 LANG, ANDREW, 32, 179 LANIER, SIDNEY, 49, 124, 163 LARCOM, LUCY, 60, 61, 64, 73, 82, 92, 97, 132 LATHROP, GEORGE PARSONS, 101 LAZARUS, EMMA, 51 LEARNED, WALTER, 17 LIDDELL, CHRISTINA CATHARINE, 80 LONGFELLOW, HENRY WADSWORTH, 102 LONGFELLOW, SAMUEL, 66 LOWELL, JAMES RUSSELL, 24, 60, 75, 77, 110 LÜDERS, CHARLES HENRY, 143

MACDONALD, GEORGE, 108 MACE, FRANCES L., 77, 95, 108, 122, 130, 149, 173 MACKAY, CHARLES, 115 MARSTON, PHILIP BOURKE, 105, 151 McLELLAN, WILLIAM, 119 MILNES, RICHARD MONCKTON, 177 MILTON, JOHN, 93, 137, 159, 163, 183 MITCHELL, NICHOLAS, 159 MONKHOUSE, COSMO, 29, 92, 97 MONTGOMERY, JAMES, 89, 162, 165 MOORE, THOMAS, 20, 90, 162 MOULTON, LOUISE CHANDLER, 87 MOULTRIE, JOHN, 66 MUNGER, ROBERT LOUIS, 146

OAKEY, EMILY S., 21, 45, 63, 79, 91, 133, 134, 150, 161 OVID, 94

PAGE, CURTIS HIDDEN, 145 PATMORE, COVENTRY, 17 PAYNE, JOHN, 15 PECK, SAMUEL MINTURN, 58, 106, 123, 136 PERCIVAL, JAMES G., 19 PHILLIPS, MILDRED G., 35 PRIOR, MATTHEW, 112 PROCTOR, ADELAIDE, 31, 74, 130, 160

READ, THOMAS BUCHANAN, 59 REED, MYRTLE, 46, 142 REESE, LIZETTE WOODWORTH, 32 REXFORD, EBEN E., 138 ROBERTSON, HARRISON, 32, 60, 96 ROGERS, SAMUEL, 34, 162 ROSSETTI, CHRISTINA, 23, 52, 62, 64, 80, 103, 145, 160

SAYLE, CHARLES, 120 SCOLLARD, CLINTON, 78, 176 SCOTT, WALTER, SIR, 95, 106 SHAKSPEARE, WILLIAM, 27, 62, 93, 110, 142, 172 SHARP, WILLIAM, 122 SHELLEY, PERCY BYSSHE, 53, 148 SHENSTONE, WILLIAM, 177 SHERMAN, FRANK DEMPSTER, 75 SHURTLEFF, ERNEST WARBURTON, 118 SMITH, CHARLOTTE, 149 SMITH, DEXTER, 178 SOULE, CAROLINE A., 98 SOUTHEY, ROBERT, 73, 90 SPENSER, EDMUND, 16, 108, 137, 161 SPOFFORD, HARRIET PRESCOTT, 37, 97, 136 STANTON, FRANK L., 116 STEDMAN, EDMUND C., 117, 180 STORY, WILLIAM W., 131, 180 STRUTHERS, WILLIAM, 58 SWAIN, CHARLES, 175 SWINBURNE, ALGERNON C., 90 SYMONDS, JOHN A., 109

TABB, JOHN B., 67 TAYLOR, BAYARD, 17, 80, 103, 104, 115, 159 TAYLOR, JOSIAH RICE, 110 TENNYSON, ALFRED, 43, 50, 57, 62, 102 TENNYSON-TURNER, CHARLES, 182 THAXTER, CELIA, 29, 46, 71, 135 THOMAS, EDITH M., 28 THOMPSON, JAMES MAURICE, 125 THOMSON, JAMES, 83, 88 TIMROD, HENRY, 105 TODHUNTER, JOHN, 48 TOLMAN, M. D., 102, 142 TOWNSEND, MARY ASHLEY, 87 TRIPP, 131 TROWBRIDGE, JOHN T., 33

VAN DYKE, HENRY, 43, 83 VAUGHAN, HENRY, 20 VIRGIL, 57

WEATHERLY, 35 WEBB, CHARLES HENRY, 132 WELLER, BERNARD, 44 WHITNEY, ADELINE D. T., 184 WHITON-STONE, MRS., 111 WHITTIER, JOHN GREENLEAF, 22, 71, 104, 119 WILDE, OSCAR, 123 WILLIS, NATHANIEL P., 112, 134, 171 WILSON, FORCEYTHE, 104 WILTON, RICHARD, 81 WOODBERRY, GEORGE EDWARD, 148 WOODS, MARGARET L., 129 WOOLSEY, SARAH CHANNING, 61 WORDSWORTH, WILLIAM, 119, 183 WOTTON, HENRY, SIR, 33 WYNDHAM, CHARLES, 164