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164
THE GOLDEN VIOLET.


   Not in courtly hall to-day
Meets the lady's congress gay.
'T is a bright and summer sky,—
They will bear it company;
Odours float upon the gale,
Comrades suiting minstrel tale;
Flowers are spreading, carpet meet
For the beauty's fairy feet.
Shame to stay in marble hall
Thus from nature's festival.

    The garden had one fair resort,
As if devised for minstrel court:
An amphitheatre of trees,
Shut from soft cheeks the ruder breeze;
While all around the chestnuts made,
With closing boughs, a pleasant shade,