William Wordsworth was deeply responsive to nature - and sometimes saw it with a surprisingly playful eye. Here he extols one of spring’s yellow wild flowers.
from TO THE SMALL CELANDINE
Pansies, lilies, kingcups, daisies,
Let them live upon their praises;
Long as there’s a sun that sets,
Primroses will have their glory;
Long as there are violets,
They will have a place in story:
There’s a flower that shall be mine,
’Tis the little celandine.
~
Eyes of some men travel far
For the finding of a star;
Up and down the heavens they go,
Men that keep a mighty rout!
I’m as great as they, I trow,
Since the day I found thee out,
Little Flower – I’ll make a stir,
Like a sage astronomer.
~
Modest, yet withal an Elf
Bold and lavish of thyself;
Since we needs must first have met
I have seen thee, high and low,
Thirty years or more, and yet
’Twas face I did not know;
Thou hast now, go where I may,
Fifty greetings in a day.
~
Ere a leaf is on a bush
In the time before the thrush
Has a thought about her nest,
Thou wilt come with half a call,
Spreading out thy glossy breast
Like a careless Prodigal;
Telling tales about the sun,
When we’ve little warmth, or none.
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