Winter Flowers.

The summer queen has many flowers         To deck her sunny hair,     And trailing grasses, pure and sweet,         To scent the heavy air;     And upward through the misty sky         There is a glory too,     Of floating clouds and rifts of gold         And depths of smiling blue.     Yet winter, too, can boast a wealth         Of flowers pure and white;     A kingly crown of frosted gems--         A wreath of sparkling light;     So bright and beautiful, indeed,         It were a wondrous sight     To see a world of fragile flowers         Sprung up within a night.     And sometimes there are cast'es, too,         Of glittering ice and snow,     Piled high upon our window-panes         'Neath curtains hanging low;     And they are like the castles fair         Our day-dreams build for aye;     A frozen mist that one warm breath         May quickly drive away.     And yet, how beautiful they are,         These flowers of our breath;     That bloom when not a leaf is left         To mourn the summer's death.     And oh! how wondrous are the things         That God has given the earth;     The day that brings to one a death         Smiles on another's birth.