The modest, lowly violet
In leaves of tender green is set;
So rich she cannot hide from read more

The modest, lowly violet
In leaves of tender green is set;
So rich she cannot hide from view,
But covers all the bank with blue.

We are violets blue,
For our sweetness found
Careless in the mossy shades,
Looking read more

We are violets blue,
For our sweetness found
Careless in the mossy shades,
Looking on the ground.
Love's dropp'd eyelids and a kiss,--
Such our breath and blueness is.
- Leigh Hunt (James Henry Leigh Hunt),

Violet! sweet violet!
Thine eyes are full of tears;
Are they wet
Even yet
read more

Violet! sweet violet!
Thine eyes are full of tears;
Are they wet
Even yet
With the thought of other years?

Steals timidly away,
Shrinking as violets do in summer's ray.

Steals timidly away,
Shrinking as violets do in summer's ray.

Hath the pearl less whiteness
Because of its birth?
Hath the violet less brightness
read more

Hath the pearl less whiteness
Because of its birth?
Hath the violet less brightness
For growing near earth?

Welcome, maids of honor,
You doe bring
In the spring,
And wait upon her.

Welcome, maids of honor,
You doe bring
In the spring,
And wait upon her.

Again the violet of our early days
Drinks beauteous azure from the golden sun,
And kindles into read more

Again the violet of our early days
Drinks beauteous azure from the golden sun,
And kindles into fragrance at his blaze.

The violets were past their prime,
Yet their departing breath
Was sweeter, in the blast of death,
read more

The violets were past their prime,
Yet their departing breath
Was sweeter, in the blast of death,
Than all the lavish fragrance of the time.

Who are the violets now
That strew the green lap of the new-come spring?

Who are the violets now
That strew the green lap of the new-come spring?