Printed Material
From Bernard
(Charlotte Smith has given an elegant imitation of this little ode, but has erroneously ascribed it to the Cardinal Bernis. E.)
Nurs’d by the zephyr’s balmy sighs,
And cherish’d by the tears of morn;
O flow’r of flow’rs! unfold — arise!
O haste,, delicious rose, be born!
Unheeding wish I no — yet awhile,
Be yet awhile thy dawn delay’d;
Since the same hour that sees thee smile
In orient bloom, shall see thee fade.
Cecilia thus, an opening flow’r,
Must with’ring droop at heav’n’s decree;
Like her thou bloom’st thy little hour,
And she, alas! must fade like thee.
But go — and on her bosom die;
At once thy throne and blissful tomb;
While envious heaves my secret sigh
To share with thee so sweet a doom.
Love shall thy graceful bent advise,
Thy blushing trem’lous tints reveal;
Go, bright yet hurtless charm her eyes;
Go, deck her bosom, not conceaL
Should some bold hand invade thee there,
From love’s asylum rudely torn;
O rose, a lover’s vengeance bear,
And let my rival feel thy thorn.
Charles A. Elton