TO A FRIEND—WITH A BUNCH OF ROSES.

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BY MISS L. VIRGINIA SMITH.

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Go forth in beauty blushing to the one I love so well—

Let this dewy fragrance gushing to his spirit softly tell

How a secret, sweet revealing from a gentle kindred heart,

Far through his bosom stealing, comes to seek its nobler part.

Oh! there’s not a spell so glowing in this lovely world of ours,

As when Feeling’s tones are flowing through the voices of the flowers,

When Affection’s thoughts are wreathing in a murmured melody

Round their dewy petals breathing forth a music-mystery.

There are angel voices given in their delicate perfume,

Which will lead us up to Heaven where the fadeless roses bloom,

They have come unto us glowing with a beauty from the skies,

They are gifts of God’s bestowing, from a blessed Paradise.

Let a bright and lovely vision from our sunny Southern bowers,

A dream of joy elysian be awakened by these flowers,

For a wealth of bliss is filling all the loveliness they wear,

And their tiny leaves are thrilling with the messages they bear.

Where the velvet bud uncloses to the morning’s golden beam

Be thy life like summer roses floating o’er a summer stream,

And amid its sunny bowers may a gentle heart be thine,

To bring thee back the flowers which thou hast thrown o’er mine.

Yes—a gentle heart to bring them—leaves from out the distant past,

O’er thy path in life to fling them—all unfading to the last,

In itself the sweetest blossom which a “God of love” has given,

To be worn within thy bosom—and to bloom for aye in Heaven.