When the bright Ram, bedecked with stars of gold, Displays his fleece the Daisy will unfold, To nymphs a chaplet and to beds a grace, Who once herself had borne a virgin's face. The daisy was under the care of Venus. It has been beloved by English poets ever since Chaucer sang the praises of the day's eye--daisy. Chaucer tells us, in what is perhaps the most worshipful poem ever addressed to a flower, that he always rose early and went out to the fields, or meadows, to pay his devotions to this "flower of flowers," whose praises he intended to sing while ever his life lasted, and he bemoaned the fact, moreover, that he had not words at his command to do it proper reverence. Next to Chaucer in paying homage to the daisy comes Wordsworth with his A nun demure, of lowly port; Or sprightly maiden, of Love's court; In thy simplicity the sport Of all temptations; Queen in crown of rubies drest, A starveling in a scanty vest, Are all, as seems to suit the best My appellations. A little cyclops with one eye Staring to threaten and defy That thought comes next--and instantly The freak is over, The shape will vanish--and behold, A silver shield with boss of gold That spreads itself some fairy bold In fight to cover. Bright flower! for by that name at last When all my reveries are past I call thee, and to that cleave fast, Sweet, silent creature That breathst with me the sun and air, Do thou as thou art wont repair My heart with gladness and a share Of thy meek nature. "Daisies smell-less yet most quaint" is a line from the flower-song in "The Two Noble Kinsmen," written by John Fletcher and Shakespeare.[37] [37] Act I, Scene I. Milton speaks of Meadows trim with daisies pied and Dryden pays a tribute to which even Chaucer would approve: And then a band of flutes began to play, To which a lady sang a tirelay; And still at every close she would repeat The burden of the song--"The Daisy is so sweet! The Daisy is so sweet!"--when she began The troops of Knights and dames continued on. The English daisy is "The wee, modest crimson-tipped flower," as Burns has described it, and must not be confused with the daisy that powders the fields and meadows in our Southern States with a snow of white blossoms supported on tall stems. This daisy, called sometimes the moon-daisy (_Chrysanthemum Leucanthemum_), is known in England as the midsummer daisy and ox-eye. In France it is called marguerite and paquerette. Being a midsummer flower, it is dedicated to St. John the Baptist. It is also associated with St. Margaret and Mary Magdalen, and from the latter it derives the names of maudlin and maudelyne. As _Ophelia_ drowned herself in midsummer the daisies that are described in her wreath are most probably marguerites and not the "day's eye" of Chaucer.