Hand in Hand/The Flower of Pain

by Alice MacDonald Fleming

The Flower of Pain

WHERE Mary set her bonny foot
Throughout the North Countree,
No English roses c'er took root,
No foreign fleur-de-lys.

Round palace tower and prison wall
('Tis vain to cut them down),
The Scottish thistles cluster tall:
The thorns of Mary's crown.

Where'er she lived Scotch thistle grows,
Her Flower of Pain is seen:
More loyal than the Southern rose,
Its purple mourns the Queen.