  On a Floral Card. Far sweeter than the rose Which all the year round blows On Cashmere’s fragrant bosom, Is the fair flower which grows Amid December snows;— ’Tis friendship’s Christmas blossom. Its loving arms expanding, The Christmas cross is standing, The guide-post of the ages, To point to realms of glory And charm with simple story The children and the sages. Red rose and pallid lily, Pansy and daffodilly, Chrysanthemum and myrtle, Around the cross are clinging With wooing and sweet singing Of nightingale and turtle. The frozen Arctic splinter Shot from the bow of winter Will lose its power to harm us, While dreams of childhood’s Christmas, ’Twixt heaven and earth an isthmus, In nightly visions charm us. The angry gale may shatter Sweet Cashmere’s rose and scatter Its leaves o’er vale and river; The Christmas flower shall thrive As long as Love shall live, Forever and forever! |
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