Page:Poems Barrett.djvu/312

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306
LESSONS FROM THE GORSE.
Lessons from the Gorse.
"To win the secret of a weed's plain heart."
Lowell.

    Mountain gorses ever-golden!
    Cankered not the whole year long!
    Do ye teach us to he strong,
    Howsoever pricked and holden
    Like your thorny blooms, and so
    Trodden on by rain and snow,
Up the hillside of this life, as bleak as where ye grow'?

    Mountain blossoms, shining blossoms!
    Do ye teach us to be glad
    When no summer can be had,
    Blooming in our inward bosoms?
    Ye, whom God preserveth still,
    Set as lights upon a hill,
Tokens to the wintry earth, that Beauty liveth still!

    Mountain gorses, do ye teach us
    From that academic chair
    Canopied with azure air,
    That the first fruit Wisdom reaches
    Hath the hue of childly cheek?
    Ye, who live on mountain peak,
Yet live low along the ground, beside the grasses meek!

    Mountain gorses! since Linnæus
    Knelt beside you on the sod,
    For your beauty thanking God,—
    For your teaching, ye should see us
    Bowing in prostration new,—
    Whence arisen,—if one or two
Drops be on our cheeks—O world! they are not tears, but dew.