To ____. (Welcome, dear heart, and a most kind good-morrow;...)

by Thomas Hood

Welcome, dear heart, and a most kind good-morrow;
The day is gloomy, but our looks shall shine: --
Flowers I have none to give thee, but I borrow
Their sweetness in a verse to speak for thine.

Here are red roses, gathered at thy cheeks, --
The white were all too happy to look white:
For love the rose, for faith the lily speaks:
It withers in false hands, but here 'tis bright!

Dost love sweet hyacinth? Its scented leaf
Curls manifold, -- all love's delights blow double:
'Tis said this floweret is inscribed with grief, --
But let that hint of a forgotten trouble.

I plucked the primrose at night's dewy noon;
Like Hope, it showed its blossoms in the night; --
'Twas like Endymion, watching for the moon!
And here are sunflowers, amorous of light!

These golden buttercups are April's seal, --
The daisy stars her constellations be:
These grew so lowly, I was forced to kneel,
Therefore I pluck no daisies but for thee!

Here's daisies for the morn, primrose for gloom,
Pansies and roses for the noontide hours; --
A wight once made a dial of their bloom, --
So may thy life be measured out by flowers!