The Hesperides & Noble Numbers/Hesperides/How Violets Came Blue
260. HOW VIOLETS CAME BLUE.
Love on a day, wise poets tell,
Some time in wrangling spent,
Whether the violets should excel,
Or she, in sweetest scent.
But Venus having lost the day,
Poor girls, she fell on you:
And beat ye so, as some dare say,
Her blows did make ye blue.