TO THE MAGNOLIA GRANDIFLORA.

Majestic flower! How purely beautiful
Thou art, as rising from thy bower of green,
Those dark and glossy leaves so thick and full,
Thou standest like a high-born forest-queen
Among thy maidens clustering round so fair; —
I love to watch thy sculptured form unfolding,
And look into thy depths, to image there
A fairy cavern; and while thus beholding,
And while the breeze floats o'er thee, matchless flower,
I breathe the perfume, delicate and strong,
That comes like incense from thy petal-bower,
My fancy roams those southern woods along,
Beneath that glorious tree, where deep among
The unsunned leaves thy large white flower-cups hung!