Louis Untermeyer, ed. (1885–1977). Modern British Poetry. 1920.
Francis Thompson18591907Daisy
W
Six foot out of the turf,
And the harebell shakes on the windy hill—
O breath of the distant surf!—
And southward dreams the sea;
And with the sea-breeze hand in hand
Came innocence and she.
Red for the gatherer springs;
Two children did we stray and talk
Wise, idle, childish things.
Breast-deep ’mid flower and spine:
Her skin was like a grape whose veins
Run snow instead of wine.
Nor knew her own sweet way;
But there’s never a bird, so sweet a song
Thronged in whose throat all day.
On the turf and on the spray;
But the sweetest flower on Sussex hills
Was the Daisy-flower that day!
She gave me tokens three:—
A look, a word of her winsome mouth,
And a wild raspberry.
A still word,—strings of sand!
And yet they made my wild, wild heart
Fly down to her little hand.
And candid as the skies,
She took the berries with her hand,
And the love with her sweet eyes.
Their scent survives their close:
But the rose’s scent is bitterness
To him that loved the rose.
Then went her sunshine way—
The sea’s eye had a mist on it,
And the leaves fell from the day.
She went and left in me
The pang of all he partings gone,
And partings yet to be.
Was sad that she was glad;
At all the sadness in the sweet,
The sweetness in the sad.
Look up with soft replies,
And take the berries with her hand,
And the love with her lovely eyes.
That is not paid with moan,
For we are born in other’s pain,
And perish in our own.