Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 28.djvu/359

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
THE FLOWER OR THE LEAF.
347

arise incidentally, but it must be kept subordinate to the main purpose. The soil must be enriched before it is plowed. Ideas must be clustered into dense and rich groups, individualities magnified and intensified, as, to keep to our subject, the flowers which are classified by the botanist may be individually magnified into almost conscious beings by the poet.[1]

  1. "A nun demure of lowly port,
    Or sprightly maiden, of Love's court,
    In thy simplicity the sport
    Of all temptations;
    A queen in crown of rubies drest,
    A starveling in a scanty vest,
    Are all, as seems to suit thee best.
    Thy appellations."—Wordsworth, "To a Daisy."

    "While the patient primrose sits
    Like a beggar in the cold.'"—Wordsworth.

    "Here are sweet-peas, on tiptoe for a flight
    With wings of gentle flush o'er delicate white.
    And taper fingers catching at all things
    To bind them all about with tiny rings."—Keats.

    "Bloomy grapes, laughing from green attire."—Ibid.

    "And the rose like a nymph to the bath addrest—
    And the hyacinth's purple and white and blue.
    Which flung from its bells a sweet peal anew
    Of music, so delicate, soft, and intense,
    It was felt like an odor within the sense."—Shelley.

    ". . . daffodils,
    That come before the swallow dares, and take
    The winds of March with beauty; violets dim.
    But sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes
    Or Cytherea's breath."—"Winter's Tale."

    "Continuous as the stars that shine
    And twinkle in the milky way; . . .
    Ten thousand saw I at a glance
    Tossing their heads in sprightly dance."
    Wordsworth, "The Daffodils."

    "Daisies, those pearled arcturi of the earth.
    The constellated flower that never sets."—Shelley.

    "The gold-eyed king-cups fine.
    The frail blue-bell peereth over
    Rare broidery of the purple clover."—Tennyson.

    "Open afresh your round of starry folds.
    Ye ardent marigolds!"—Keats.

    "Death in the wood—
    In the death-pale lips apart.
    Death, in a whiteness that curdles the blood.
    Now black to the very heart.

    ********* To show that life by the spirit comes.
    She gave us a soulless flower."
    Elaine Goodale, "The Indian Pipe."