METRE II

Illic forma rosae.

There the form of the rose, faithfully painted, and erring very little from true appearance, matched the color of purple with its own blush, and had tinged the ground with its blood. There, playing with its companion blossoms, was the lovely, fragrant flower of Adonis. The tall lily's silver proclaimed the fields and the valley-depths. The thyme, contentious with unequal lip, and jealous of the other blooms, vied with its companion flower, narcissus, and the merry rivers --laughed with quiet murmurs. The light of all shone the columbine, of luxuriant aspect. The tiny bloom of the violet, speaking of the ease of the spring-tide, starred the arbute trees, its face full of the beauty of art. Here she had ordered a variety of flower to live, Which [1] was a writing-surface of royal name, though yet ignorant of the thumb of the writer. These are the riches of the spring and its mantles, the beauty of the earth and its stars, which the art of the pictures showed, representing the blossoms with deceiving skill. With these blooming garments of flowers does the graciousness of the spendthrift spring ennoble the meadows, some showing pure white, others purple, being woven by the skilful right hand of Favonius.

1. Reading quae with B. and Migne.