Part 28

According to ancient fable, Daphne was the daughter of the river Peneus. Apollo fell in love with her, but she, preferring virtue to the love of the most eloquent of the gods, fled, in order to avoid the seducing magic of his words. Apollo pursued, and was on the point of overtaking her, when the nymph invoked her father, and was changed into a Laurel. The god, finding that he clasped an insensible tree in his arms, kissed its bright leaves. “Since thou canst not be my spouse,” said he, “thou shalt, at least, be my tree.” Thence-forward the Laurel was sacred to Apollo.

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Ambition! ambition! I’ve laughed to scorn Thy robe and thy gleaming sword; I would follow sooner a woman’s eye, Or the spell of a gentle word. But come with the glory of human mind, And the light of the scholar’s brow, And my heart shall be taught forgetfulness, And alone at thy altar bow.

Willis.

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Give me the trumpet tone of fame, The victor’s wreath, the hero’s name; Though bites the steel and clanks the chain, I would a warrior’s glory gain, A nation’s pet and idol be, With slaves to crouch and bend the knee.

W. H. C.

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What is glory? What is fame? The echo of a long-lost name; A breath, an idle hour’s brief talk; The shadow of an arrant naught; A flower that blossoms for a day, Dying next morrow; A stream that hurries on its way, Singing of sorrow.

Motherwell.

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In poet’s lore, and sentimental story, It seems as ’twere this life’s supremest aim For heroes to achieve what men call glory, And die intoxicate with earth’s acclaim. Ah me! how little care the dead for breath Of vain applause that saved them not from death.

MacKellar.

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To die, and leave some worthy work to earth, Is but a fine transition. ’Tis to leave A talisman to call the spirit back, Reft of its ground-born tenement.

C. Watson.

AMARANTH.... Immortality.

The Amaranth is unfading; and it has, therefore, been made the emblem of immortality. In Homer’s time, it was customary to wear crowns of Amaranth at the funerals of distinguished personages. Milton, in his Lycidas, classes it among the flowers that “sad embroidery wear.” In the floral games at Toulouse, the principal prize was a golden Amaranth for the best lyric composition. The Amaranthus hypochondriacus, one of the American species, is better known by the name of Prince’s Feather.

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There’s a yearning that’s felt in your heart’s deepest cell, And silently, vainly, within doth it swell; And, scorning the hopes of the children of earth, Seeks the bright home of its heavenly birth; And that yearning, unquenched in the heart will lie, Till refreshed by a draught from eternity.

Miss Larcom.

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Oh, listen man! A voice within us speaks that startling word, “Man, thou shalt never die!” Celestial voices Hymn it unto our souls: according harps, By angel fingers touched, when the mild stars Of morning sang together, sound forth still The song of our great immortality.

Dana.

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Immortal Amaranth! a flower which once In paradise, fast by the tree of life Began to bloom; but soon, for man’s offence, To heaven removed, where first it grew, there grows And flowers aloft, shading the tree of life.

Milton.

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