I know not which I love the most,
Nor which the comeliest shows,
The timid, bashful violet
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I know not which I love the most,
Nor which the comeliest shows,
The timid, bashful violet
Or the royal-hearted rose:
The pansy in purple dress,
The pink with cheek of red,
Or the faint, fair heliotrope, who hangs,
Like a bashful maid her head.

The flower-girl's prayer to buy roses and pinks,
Held out in the smoke, like stars by day.

The flower-girl's prayer to buy roses and pinks,
Held out in the smoke, like stars by day.

A root is a flower that disdains fame.

A root is a flower that disdains fame.

The earth laughs in flowers.

The earth laughs in flowers.

Art is the unceasing effort to compete with the beauty of flowers - and never succeeding.

Art is the unceasing effort to compete with the beauty of flowers - and never succeeding.

And lilies are still lilies, pulled
By smutty hands, though spotted from their white.

And lilies are still lilies, pulled
By smutty hands, though spotted from their white.

Not a flower
But shows some touch, in freckle, streak or stain,
Of his unrivall'd pencil.

Not a flower
But shows some touch, in freckle, streak or stain,
Of his unrivall'd pencil.

Flowers. . . are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty outvalues all the utilities of the world.

Flowers. . . are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty outvalues all the utilities of the world.

Now blooms the lily by the bank,
The primrose down the brae;
The hawthorn's budding in the read more

Now blooms the lily by the bank,
The primrose down the brae;
The hawthorn's budding in the glen,
The milkwhite is the slae.