Poems (Hoffman)/The Blue Daisies of the Crag

by Martha Lavinia Hoffman

THE BLUE DAISIES OF THE CRAGS

Looking out on the restless sea,
Gazing up to peaceful skies,
Have they lent their sapphire hue to thee,
To glow at dawn in thine opening eyes,
 Beautiful dweller on crag and cliff,
 Rooted firm in the rock's rude rift?

Cold is the rock where thy rootlets cling,
Washed by the high tide's briny spray,
And the white gull sweeps with his flapping wing
Thy fragile crown in his watch for prey,
 Hovering over with eager eyes,
 Searching the waves for his welcome prize.

Come with me to my inland home,
Blue-eyed child of the ocean, come;
There the noise of the breakers' roar
Shall disturb the peace of thy dreams no more,
 No narrow crevice shall be thy home;
 Beautiful child of the stern crags, come.

I have torn thee loose from thy shallow hold,
In another home shall thy buds unfold;
No more shall the stern, grey boulder wear,
On his grand, dark crown a gem so fair;
 Thy sapphire shall shine for another's pride,
 In a warmer clime than the chill seaside.

Transplanted safe to a deeper soil,
Far, far from the ocean's loud turmoil,
Hast thou forgotten the cliffs so high,
And the mingling azure of sea and sky,
 And the heavy fogs that thy thirst satisfied,
 Or the rocky crest where thy rootlets did hide?

But evermore in the perfect blue
Of thy fragile petals' silken whorl,
The deep blue waves that thou bidst adieu,
Round a silvery boat of fancy curl;
 And its glory sleeps in thy blossom heart,
 For a fragment bright of the waves thou art.