The Metropolitan Magazine - v. 55 Author:Unknown Author Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE HEART AND THE FLOWER. BY MRS. CHARLES TINSLEY. " Ah ! thou strange and life-long mystery, What small space holds all thy history ?" Thus spake out, in ... more »low, sad tone, One that through the woods alone Wandered in a quiet hour, Gazing on a small, red flower. " Ah ! thou strange and life-long mystery, What small space holds all thy history ? —Being—suffering—loving —losing— Wearing chains of others' choosing!" To that spirit's quickened thought Came back all the past unsought, As thus spake that small, red flower, Crowding life into an hour:— " Once a father and his child Wandered by the hedge-rows wild, Blossom-laden with sweet may, On a closing summer day. A busy hum was in the air, Of the glad life revelling there; A rich perfume rose from the grass; The river gave back, as a glass, The dark old fir trees on the knoll— And the child thought it had a soul: A soul! that river broad and deep, Looking so death-like in its sleep, And yet so mighty in its power To breathe the spirit of the hour; To give back all created things In their rich hues and shadowings! Dreamers alike, together drawn, By ties firm-knit as nature's own, That father and that child walked on, Plucking the wild-flowers one by one; And many a favourite poet's rhyme Made music for the hallowed time. At length, the stunted grass betweea Just peeping, and yet scarcely seen, A fairy flower the father spied, Crimson in colour, and star-eyed; And, gazing on its beauty rare, Said,—" See, child, God is everywhere; Giving the meanest weed that blows A grace might rival ev'n the rose !" Ah ! tiny flower, meet thing to bless With a child's gushing tenderness ! So fair it seemed, so delicate, So tremblingly to hang on fate,— And yet so trustingly to say,— " Once see, and love me then alway 1" Tha...« less