"Violets" (1874)
by Frederick Woodman Root

Violets, violets, beautiful violets,
Laden with perfume and dripping with dew,
From dell and from dingle, by rill and rivulet,
Lady, at sunrise I sought them for you;
Enclosed in a cluster of green leaves I found them,
Hiding their heads from the gaze of the day;
Betrayed by the sweets they themselves shed around them,
I called the coy blossoms and bore them away.

Violets, violets, beautiful violets,
Laden with perfume and dripping with dew,
From dell and from dingle, by rill and by rivulet,
Lady at sunrise I sought them for you.

Slight not the flower, the shy little flow'r,
It seeks not to vie with the gay garden rose;
Though humble in the incense it brings to your bow'r,
Tho' its life is a short one, 'tis sweet to the close;
Slight not the flow'r, slight not the flow'r.

Violets, violets, beautiful violets,
Laden with perfume and dripping with dew,
From dell and from dingle, by rill and by rivulet,
Lady at sunrise I sought them for you.