"Marsh Marigolds"

Random Poetry List XCIII

Here in the water-meadows
   Marsh marigolds ablaze
Brighten the elder shadows
   Lost in an autumn haze.
Drunkards of sun and summer
   They keep their colours clear,
Flaming among the marshes
   At waning of the year.

Thicker than bee-swung clovers
   They crowd the meadow-space;
Each to the mist that hovers
   Lifts an undaunted face.
Time, that has stripped the sunflower,
   And driven the bees away,
Hath on these golden gipsies
   No power to dismay.

Marsh marigolds together
   Their ragged banners lift
Against the darkening weather,
   Long rains and frozen drift:
They take the lessening sunshine
   Home to their hearts to keep
Against the days of darkness,
   Against the time of sleep.

Nora Hopper Chesson (1871-1906)

Originally e-mailed on Wednesday, December 05, 2001 @ 10:06 AM.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Fri. 12/05/08 07:36:17 AM
Categorized as Literary & Random Poetry List.