Charles City Republican intelligencer. [volume] (Charles City, Iowa) 1861-1864, 1863-12-31
Gbe yntelligenter.
A. b. r. HILDRETH, Editor.
Charles City, Iowa, Dec. 81, 1863.
Flowers in Winter.

Philadelphia, entitled "The Lady's
Friend" has an editorial upon the cul
tiratiOn of Flowers in Winter" and
closes by quoting poem upon Chrys-
anthemums by the exquisite poetess,
FLORENCE Percy" When "Florence
Percy" was little chubby maiden
known only as Lizzie Chase, at the
early age of fifteen years, she began
her career as an authoress by writing
for a newspaper and magazine then
conducted by us in the old Green
Mountain State. 1t is, therefore, with
a feeling Of no ordinary pride that we
transfer to our columns the following
Introductory remarks of Mrs. Henry
Peterson and the sweet poem by our
protege of former days:
The warm, decided colors o. Chrysanthe-
NUNS are pleasing in mid winter AID then
we like the cheerful, hardy things for flower
ite among them, however, is wholly without
color-as white, literally, as snow just fallen
from the winter sky. Its petals, too, are not
unlike snowfakes in their airy lightness.
The graceful poet, Florence Percy, has thrown
a new charm around it 10y the following lines,
which we draw forth from our treasury of
choicest things, in the hope that some among
our readers may enjoy, as we do, their glow
ing floral imagery and exquisite versifcation
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES.
FLORENCE rERcr.
Once, long ago in summers glow,
We threaded, you and |,
A gardens maze of pleasant ways
Whose beauty charmed the eye
Where violets bent in sweet content,
And pinks stood proud and high.
And from their screen of tender green
Broad pansics peeping through.
Wore gorgeous dyes like butterflies;
Cool lilies kept the dew;
And fair and tall along the wall
The climbing roses grew.
The velvet bees, in fragrant case,
Lay drunken with perfume,-
Song-sparrows made the gardens shade
Their fitting concert room,
And all the air was music there,
And all the earth was bloom.
There grew one plant in utter want
OF bud or blossom dover;
broke spray of leaves away,
And said The winter hour
VIII crown these stems with diadems-
This bears the Christ sweet flower.
at cheers with bloom the stormy gloom
BY chill December nursed;
And it is told in stories old
That this fair blossom first,
On that blest morn when Christ was born,
Into white beauty burst.
Perhaps-ah, we'll, we cannot tell
If truly it be so
but repeat the legend sweet
And only this know
That in the prime of Christmas time
The Christs sweet flowers blow.
More pure and clear than any here,
Their snowy discs unfold,
White as star that melts afar
Into the mornings gold
And odor rare above compare,
Their fragrant fringes hold.
"This branch break for memory's S sake,
And ere descends the snow,
The slender bough sever now
Within our home shall grow
How brightly there, all white and fair,
The Christ's sweet flowers shall blow"
o o o o
The curtains fold away the cold
The bleak and drifting snow
Red re-gleams fall whereon the wall
The pleasant pictures glow
And fair and white beneath the light
The Christ's sweet flowers blow.
But cold and deep the snow-drifts heap
Above thy silent form
l cannot hold my garments fold
Between thee and the storm
cannot dare the bitter air,
And clasp thee near and warm.
And what 20 me are light and glee
When all the while | know
That cold and deep the snow-drifts heap
Above thy slumber low
What do | care that white and fair
The Christ's sweet flowers blowi