Poetical Fragments from Ethel Churchill Volume II/Death in the Flower
CHAPTER XLI.
THE LABORATORY.
'Tis a fair tree, the almond-tree: there Spring
Shews the first promise of her rosy wreath;
Or ere the green leaves venture from the bud,
Those fragile blossoms light the winter bough
With delicate colours, heralding the rose,
Whose own Aurora they might seem to be.
What lurks beneath their faint and lovely red?
What the dark spirit in those fairy flowers?
'Tis death!
Blanchard’s title is:
DEATH IN THE FLOWER
In The New York Mirror (10th March 1838), as The Almond-Tree