Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE FLOWER OF THE DESERT, by FELICIA DOROTHEA HEMANS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE FLOWER OF THE DESERT, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Why art thou thus in thy beauty cast
Last Line: "by the lonely, loneliest flower!"
Alternate Author Name(s): Browne, Felicia Dorothea
Subject(s): Deserts; Flowers; Food & Eating


WHY art thou thus in thy beauty cast,
O lonely, loneliest flower!
Where the sound of song hath never passed
From human hearth or bower?

I pity thee, for thy heart of love,
For that glowing heart, that fain
Would breathe out joy with each wind to rove --
In vain, lost thing! in vain!

I pity thee, for thy wasted bloom,
For thy glory's fleeting hour,
For the desert place, thy living tomb --
O lonely, loneliest flower!

I said -- but a low voice made reply:
"Lament not for the flower!
Though its blossoms all unmarked must die,
They have had a glorious dower.

"Though it bloom afar from the minstrel's way,
And the paths where lovers tread;
Yet strength and hope, like an inborn day,
By its odours have been shed.

"Yes! dews more sweet than ever fell
O'er island of the blest,
Were shaken forth, from its purple bell,
On a suffering human breast.

"A wanderer came, as a stricken deer,
O'er the waste of burning sand,
He bore the wound of an Arab spear,
He fled from a ruthless band.

"And dreams of home in a troubled tide
Swept o'er his darkening eye,
As he lay down by the fountain-side,
In his mute despair to die.

"But his glance was caught by the desert's flower,
The precious boon of heaven;
And sudden hope, like a vernal shower,
To his fainting heart was given.

"For the bright flower spoke of One above --
Of the presence felt to brood,
With a spirit of pervading love,
O'er the wildest solitude.

"Oh! the seed was thrown those wastes among
In a blessed and gracious hour,
For the lorn one rose in heart made strong
By the lonely, loneliest flower!"





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