Mrs. Felicia Dorothea Hemans (1793–1835)

FLOWERS!—when the Saviour’s calm, benignant eye

Fell on your gentle beauty,—when from you

That heavenly lesson for all hearts he drew,

Eternal, universal, as the sky,—

Then, in the bosom of your purity,

A voice he set, as in a temple-shrine,

That life’s quick travellers ne’er might pass you by

Unwarned of that sweet oracle divine.

And though too oft its low, celestial sound,

By the harsh notes of work-day Care is drowned,

And the loud steps of vain unlistening Haste,

Yet the great ocean hath no tone of power

Mightier to reach the soul, in thought’s hushed hour,

Than yours, ye Lilies! chosen thus and graced!