Destroyers and Other Verses/When the Copse is Grey With Bud
When the copse is grey with bud,
And spring is surging in my blood,
Year by year beneath the hill
I sought a simple for my ill.
And spring is surging in my blood,
Year by year beneath the hill
I sought a simple for my ill.
Blushing at a word o'erbold,
Praying when the world seemed cold,
Loveliest of flowers to me
Was the wood anemone.
Praying when the world seemed cold,
Loveliest of flowers to me
Was the wood anemone.
On simple homely cares intent,
A spring of passive self-content
Led me where among the kine
Gleams the golden celandine.
A spring of passive self-content
Led me where among the kine
Gleams the golden celandine.
Yellow primroses that vie
With the dawn tints of the sky;
Violets with a joyous sense
Of hidden, scented opulence;
With the dawn tints of the sky;
Violets with a joyous sense
Of hidden, scented opulence;
Palm that on a leafless tree
Flowers foretelling Calvary,
Each has caught a fleeting mood
Of my budding womanhood.
Flowers foretelling Calvary,
Each has caught a fleeting mood
Of my budding womanhood.
Doomed a maid to dwell apart,
Within my solitary heart,
When bitter milk-streams upward surge,
I go to pluck the woodland spurge.
Within my solitary heart,
When bitter milk-streams upward surge,
I go to pluck the woodland spurge.