Alfred H. Miles, ed. The Sacred Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907.
By Poems. I. The DaisyHenry Septimus Sutton (1825–1901)
A
Upon a pillar green,
Earth holds her Daisy up
To catch the sunshine in;—
A dial-plant, set there
To show each radiant hour;—
A field-astronomer,
A sun-observing flower;—
Where wingèd kine may graze;—
A golden meadow soft,
Quadrille-ground for young fays;—
A fenced-in yellow plot
With pales milk-white and clean,
Each tipt with crimson spot
And set in ground of green.
To meet the Daisy run;
They love to see how bright
She shines upon the sun.
Like lowly white-crown’d queen
She graciously doth bend,
And stands with quiet mien
The little children’s friend.
A simple rustic maid,
In comely gown of green,
And pure white frill array’d,
Dreaming, like one in mood
Of hope by fancy spun,
Awaiting to be wooed,
And willing to be won.
All exquisitely dress’d,
Before the Daisy’s eye
Displays his velvet vest;
In vain is he array’d
In all that gaudy show;
What need hath rustic maid
Of such a foppish beau?
For what he gets thereby,
Nor comes, excepts he brings
His pocket on his thigh;
Then let him start aside
And woo some wealthier flower
The Daisy’s not his bride,
She hath no honey-dower.
In frugal frieze-coat drest,
Seeks on her carpet yellow
His tottering limbs to rest;
He woos her with eyes dim,
Voice thin, and aspect sage;—
What careth she for him?
What mate is youth for age?
Where they can best be seen,
Her little golden gifts
In white-fringed basket green
Still ready to be met
In every passing hour,
The little children’s pet,
Their ever-faithful flower.