Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 November 1891 — MORNING-GLORIES. [ARTICLE]

MORNING-GLORIES.

0 dainty daughters of the dawn —most delicate of flowers! How fitly do ye come to deck day’s most delicious hours, Evoked by morning's earliest breath, your fragile cups unfold Before the light has cleft the sky, or edged the world with gold. Before the luxurious butterflies and moths are yet astir, Before the careless breeze has snapped th leaf-hung gossamer— While sphered dewdrops, yet unquaffed by thirsty insect-thieves, Eroider with rows of diamonds the edges of the leaves. Ye drink from day’s o’erflowing brim, nor ever dream of noon; With bashful nod ye greet the sun, whose flattery sco'ches soon. Your trumpets trembling to the touch of humm ng bird and bee. In tender trepidation sweet, and fair timidity. No flower in all the garden hath so wide a choice of hue; The deepest purple dyes are yours—the tenderest tints of blue; While some are colorless as light—some flushed incarnadine. And some are clouded crimson, like a goblet stained with wi e. Ye hold not. in your calm cool hearts the passion of the rose, Ye do not own the haughty pride the regal lily’ knows; But ah! what blossom has the charm, the purity of this, Which shrinks before the tenderestlove, and dies beneath a kiss? In this wide garden of Ihe world, where he is wise who knows The bramble from the sweet brier, the nettle from the rose, Some lives there are which seem like these, as sensitive and fair. As far fiom thought of sin or shame, as freo from stain of care. We find sometimes these splendid souls, when all our world is young. Where life is crisp with freshness, with unshaken dew-drops hung. They blossom in the cool d m hours, ere sunshine dries the air, But cease and vanish long before the noonday’s heat and glare. And if in manhood’s dusty time, fatigued with toil and glow. We crave the fresh, young morning heart which chirmed us long ago. We seek in vain the olden ways, the shadows moist and fair— The heart-shaped leaves may linger, but the Llostoms are n t there. —[Elizabeth Akers Allen.