Flower Pieces and other poems :: :: University of Virginia Library

Flower Pieces and other poems

By William Allingham: With two designs by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Allingham, William (1824-1889)

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Now let me choose a native blossom,
Ere I quit the sunny fields,
Fittest for my Lucy's bosom,
Hill, or brake, or meadow yields.

Flag or Poppy I'll not gather,
Briony or Pimpernel;
Scented Thyme or sprouting Heather,
Though they please me both so well.

Purpling Vetches, crimson Clover,
Pea-bloom winglets, pied and faint,
Bluebell, Windflow'r, pass them over;
Sober Mallow, Orchis quaint.

Striped Convolvulus in hedges,
Columbine, and Mountain-Pink;
Lilies, floating seen through sedges,
Violets nestling by the brink;

Creamy Elder, blue Germander,
Betony that seeks the shade;
Nor where Honeysuckles wander
May that luscious balm persuade.

Sad Forget-me-not's a token
Full of partings and mishaps;
Leave the Foxglove spire unbroken,
Lest the Fairies want for caps.

Crimson Loose-strife, Crowfoot, Pansy,
Golden Gorse, or golden Broom,
Eyebright cannot fix my fancy,
Nor the Meadowsweet's perfume.

Azure, scarlet, pink or pearly,
Rustic friends in field or grove,
Each of you I prize full dearly,
None of you is for my Love.

Wild-Rose! delicately flushing
All the border of the dale—
Art thou like a pale cheek blushing,
Or a red cheek turning pale?

Is it sorrow? is it gladness?
Lover's hopes, or lover's fears?
Or a most delicious sadness,
Mingled up of smiles and tears?

Come!—no silky leaflet shaken—
To a breast as pure and fair;
Come! and thoughts more tender waken
Than thy fragrant spirit there.