Fables in Song :: :: University of Virginia Library

Then the Thistle, at last, could enlarge his store
Of the few joys fate had vouchsafed him sparely.
Baffled a hundred times, and more,
Bruised, and torn, and surviving barely,
Still he survived: and for him, him only,
Green leaves gladden'd the leafless cold
Where, Summer's orphan, he linger'd lonely
Over her grave in the frozen mould.
For, as days, long dead, by a bard born after
Are invoked, and revive in a form more fair,
All the bliss that was beauty, the life that was laughter,
Ere the frolic fields were bereft and bare,
The lone Thistle renew'd and transform'd to his own;
As flower by flower—from the fervid rose,
Whose beauty so well to herself is known,
That she blushes proud of the truth she knows,
To the violet, Modesty's vanquisht child,
Hiding her head in the sylvan places

Where her wandering wooer, the March gust wild,
Hath left her faint from his harsh embraces,
All of them—all, in a dream divine
To the heart of the Thistle sweet secrets told
Of blushes that burn, and of brows that shine,
With passion of purple and glory of gold.
So all flowers of the field were alive in one:
And the glow of his sheen, and the gloss of his down,
Were as jewels dead queens have confided alone
To the craftsman who fashions them all to a crown.

For each hope in the heart of the poor plant hidden
Each vision of bliss and of beauty, nurst,
With a passion by Prejudice check'd and chidden,
For a life by the fiat of Fortune curst,
Rushing forthwith into rich reality,
Fill'd the cup of a quenchless thirst
Till it flow'd with exuberant prodigality,
And his long-pent life into blossom burst.
A single blossom: but statelier far,
And fairer, than many a million are.
A splendid disc, full and flashing with wonder!
As the sea-rose swims on the water, so
That effulgent star on the bleak earth under
Lay spread out in a luminous glow.
And “At last I can blossom! blossom! blossom!”
The Thistle laugh'd, greeting the earth and heaven,
And he blossom'd his whole heart out of his bosom.

And all was forgotten, save all that was given.