Flowers By A Grave

Alien blossoms! tell me why         Seek ye such a lonely place,     Thus to bloom, and droop, and die         Far away from all your race?     Wherefore, from the sunny bowers         Where your beauteous kindred bloom,     Have ye come, O banished flowers!         Thus to decorate a tomb?     "Mortal, dost thou question why         Thus beside the grave we bloom?     Why we hither come to die,         Aliens from our garden-home?     "'Twas Affection's gentle hand         Placed us thus her dead so near; -     Tis at weeping Love's command         That we breathe our fragrance here.     "Ask not why we wither here,         Thou who ne'er hast tasted woe,     Who hast never felt the tear         Of bereaved affection flow, -     "Ask not, till thy household band         By death's cruel stroke is riven,     Till some bright bird'scapes thy hand -         Then thy answer will be given!"