Page:Poems Acton.djvu/99

Crocus bright, and polyanthus,
 From its presence shrank with dread,
As amid their dewy-blossoms
 High it rear'd its chilling head;
And the leaves that deck'd the border
 Turn'd their graceful stems with fear
From the frosty breath and bearing
 Of the prickly stranger near.

But it chanc'd, one bitter morning,
 When the driving snow fell fast,
And each bud crouch'd low for shelter
 From the keen and cutting blast,
That a pale and tender snow-drop,
 Newly-risen from its birth,
Bow'd its head beneath the whirlwind
 To the hard and frozen earth.

From the storm that swept the garden
 Naught could shield the fragile flower;
When the holly, downward bending,
 Lent its succour in that hour:
'Neath its boughs the snow-drop rested,
 Safely shelter'd on the ground
From the wind that raged with fury,
 And the snow that fell around.