a diviner ray

'Sweetest child of weeping morning,
Gem, the breast of earth adorning,
Eye of flow'rets, glow of lawns,
Bud of beauty, nursed by dawns:
Soft the soul of love it breathes, . . .

And to Zephyr's wild caresses,
Diffuses all its verdant tresses,
Till glowing with the wanton's play,
It blushes a diviner ray.'

'Sappho of Lesbos, in praise of the Rose, c. 600 BC, quoted by Sheila Pickles in The Language of Flowers, 1990.