TO THE FRINGED GENTIAN

TH

By WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

HOU blossom, bright with autumn dew,
And colored with the heaven's own blue,

That openest when the quiet light

Succeeds the keen and frosty night;

Thou comest not when violets lean
O'er wandering brooks and springs unseen,
Or columbines, in purple dressed,

Nod o'er the ground-bird's hidden nest.

Thou waitest late, and com'st alone,

When woods are bare and birds are flown, And frosts and shortening days portend The aged Year is near his end.

Then doth thy sweet and quiet eye
Look through its fringes to the sky,
Blue-blue-as if that sky let fall
A flower from its cerulean wall.

I would that thus, when I shall see
The hour of death draw near to me,
Hope, blossoming within my heart,
May look to heaven as I depart.

TO A MOUSE

ON TURNING HER UP IN HER NEST WITH THE PLOW, NOVEMBER, 1785

WEE

By ROBERT BURNS

VEE, sleekit,' cow'rin', tim'rous beastie,
O, what a panic's in thy breastie!

Thou need na start awa sae hasty,

Wi' bickering brattle!2

I wad be laith to rin an' chase thee,

Wi' murdering pattle!

I'm truly sorry man's dominion
Has broken Nature's social union,
An' justifies that ill opinion

Which makes thee startle

At me, thy poor earth-born companion,

An' fellow-mortal!

I doubt na, whyles, but thou may thieve;
What then? poor beastie, thou maun live!

1. Sleekit means sly.

2. Brattle means a short race.

3. A pattle is a scraper for cleaning a plow.

4. Daimen-icker means an ear of corn occasionally.

5. A thrave is twenty-four sheaves.

6. Lave is the Scotch word for remainder.

Thy wee bit housie, too, in ruin!
Its silly wa's the win's are strewin'!
An' naething, now, to big a new ane,

O' foggage green!

An' bleak December's winds ensuin',

Baith snell and keen!

Thou saw the fields laid bare an' waste,
And weary winter comin' fast,

And cozie, here, beneath the blast,

Thou thought to dwell,

Till crash! the cruel coulter9 past

Out thro' thy cell.

That wee bit heap o' leaves an' stibble,
Has cost thee mony a weary nibble!
Now thou's turn'd out, for a' thy trouble,

But house or hald,1

To thole" the winter's sleety dribble,

10

An' cranreuch12 cauld!

13

But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane,'
In proving foresight may be vain;
The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men,

An' lea'e us nought but grief and pain,

plow.

Gang aft a-gley,14

For promis'd joy.

7. Foggage is coarse uncut grass.

8. Snell means sharp.

9. The coulter is the sharp iron which cuts the sod before the

10. Hald means a resting place.

But here means without.

11. Thole is the Scotch word for endure.

12. Cranreuch is hoar-frost.

13. No thy lane means not alone.

14. Gang aft a-gley means often go wrong.

Still thou are blest, compar'd wi' me!
The present only toucheth thee:
But, Och! I backward cast my e'e

On prospects drear;

An' forward, tho' I canna see,15

I guess an' fear.

TO A MOUNTAIN DAISY

ON TURNING ONE DOWN WITH THE PLOUGH IN APRIL, 1786

WEE

By ROBERT BURNS

EE, modest, crimson-tippéd flower,
Thou's met me in an evil hour,
For I maun1 crush amang the stoure2
Thy slender stem;

To spare thee now is past my power,
Thou bonny gem.

Alas! it's no thy neibor sweet,

The bonny lark, companion meet,
Bending thee' mang the dewy weet,

Wi' spreckled3 breast,

When upward springing, blithe, to greet
The purpling east.

15. In this poem and the one To a Mountain Daisy, does the allusion to the poet's own hard fate add to or detract from the beauty of the composition? Do these allusions give any insight into his character? What was always uppermost in his mind?

1. Maun is the Scotch word for must.

2. Stoure is the Scotch name for dust.

3. Spreckled is the Scotch and provincial English form of speckled.