THE PRIMROSE.

By William Lisle Bowles

‘ Tis the first primrose! see how meek,

Yet beautiful, it looks;

As just a lesson it may teach

As that we read in books.

While gardens show in flowering pride

The lily's stately ranks,

It loves its modest head to hide

Beneath the bramble banks.

And so the little cottage maid

May bloom unseen and die;

But she, when transient flowerets fade,

Shall live with Christ on high.