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Home  »  The Sacred Poets of the Nineteenth Century  »  Henry Septimus Sutton (1825–1901)

Alfred H. Miles, ed. The Sacred Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907.

By Poems. I. The Daisy

Henry Septimus Sutton (1825–1901)

A GOLD and silver cup

Upon a pillar green,

Earth holds her Daisy up

To catch the sunshine in;—

A dial-plant, set there

To show each radiant hour;—

A field-astronomer,

A sun-observing flower;—

A little rounded croft

Where wingèd kine may graze;—

A golden meadow soft,

Quadrille-ground for young fays;—

A fenced-in yellow plot

With pales milk-white and clean,

Each tipt with crimson spot

And set in ground of green.

The children with delight

To meet the Daisy run;

They love to see how bright

She shines upon the sun.

Like lowly white-crown’d queen

She graciously doth bend,

And stands with quiet mien

The little children’s friend.

Sometimes the Daisy’s seen,

A simple rustic maid,

In comely gown of green,

And pure white frill array’d,

Dreaming, like one in mood

Of hope by fancy spun,

Awaiting to be wooed,

And willing to be won.

The dandy Butterfly,

All exquisitely dress’d,

Before the Daisy’s eye

Displays his velvet vest;

In vain is he array’d

In all that gaudy show;

What need hath rustic maid

Of such a foppish beau?

The vagrant Bee but sings

For what he gets thereby,

Nor comes, excepts he brings

His pocket on his thigh;

Then let him start aside

And woo some wealthier flower

The Daisy’s not his bride,

She hath no honey-dower.

The Gnat, old back-bent fellow,

In frugal frieze-coat drest,

Seeks on her carpet yellow

His tottering limbs to rest;

He woos her with eyes dim,

Voice thin, and aspect sage;—

What careth she for him?

What mate is youth for age?

Upon her head she lifts,

Where they can best be seen,

Her little golden gifts

In white-fringed basket green

Still ready to be met

In every passing hour,

The little children’s pet,

Their ever-faithful flower.