Emblems of valour, and of victory.[203] Behold an order yet of newer date, Doubling their number, equal in their state; Our England's ornament, the crown's defence, In battle brave, protectors of their prince; Unchanged by fortune, to their sovereign true, For which their manly legs are bound with blue. These, of the garter called, of faith unstained, } In fighting fields the laurel have obtained, } And well repaid those honours which they gained. } The laurel wreaths were first by Cæsar worn, And still they Cæsar's successors adorn; One leaf of this is immortality, And more of worth than all the world can buy.-- One doubt remains, said I; the dames in green, What were their qualities, and who their queen?-- Flora commands, said she, those nymphs and knights, Who lived in slothful ease and loose delights; Who never acts of honour durst pursue, The men inglorious knights, the ladies all untrue; Who, nursed in idleness, and trained in courts, Passed all their precious hours in plays and sports, Till death behind came stalking on, unseen, And withered (like the storm) the freshness of their green. These, and their mates, enjoy the present hour, And therefore pay their homage to the flower. But knights in knightly deeds should persevere, } And still continue what at first they were; } Continue, and proceed in honour's fair career. } No room for cowardice, or dull delay; From good to better they should urge their way. For this with golden spurs the chiefs are graced, With pointed rowels armed, to mend their haste; For this with lasting leaves their brows are bound; } For laurel is the sign of labour crowned, } Which bears the bitter blast, nor shaken falls to ground: } From winter winds it suffers no decay, For ever fresh and fair, and every month is May. Even when the vital sap retreats below, Even when the hoary head is hid in snow, The life is in the leaf, and still between The fits of falling snows appears the streaky green. Not so the flower, which lasts for little space, A short-lived good, and an uncertain grace: This way and that the feeble stem is driven, Weak to sustain the storms and injuries of heaven. Propped by the spring, it lifts aloft the head, } But of a sickly beauty, soon to shed; } In summer living, and in winter dead. } For things of tender kind, for pleasure made, Shoot up with swift increase, and sudden are decayed.-- With humble words, the wisest I could frame, And proffered service, I repaid the dame; That, of her grace, she gave her maid to know The secret meaning of this moral show. And she, to prove what profit I had made Of mystic truth, in fables first conveyed, Demanded till the next returning May, Whether the leaf or flower I would obey? I chose the leaf; she smiled with sober cheer, And wished me fair adventure for the year,