Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895.

Walter Savage Landor 1775–1864

Cowslips

Landor-W

WITH rosy hand a little girl press’d down

A boss of fresh-cull’d cowslips in a rill:

Often as they sprang up again, a frown

Show’d she dislik’d resistance to her will:

But when they droop’d their heads and shone much less,

She shook them to and fro, and threw them by,

And tripp’d away. “Ye loathe the heaviness

Ye love to cause, my little girls!” thought I,

“And what has shone for you, by you must die!”