The nodding oxeye bends before the wind, The woodbine quakes lest boys their flowers should find, And prickly dog-rose, spite of its array, Can't dare the blossom-seeking hand away, While thistles wear their haughty plume, And by the roadside danger's self defy; On commons where pined sheep and oxen lie, In ruddy pomp and ever thronging mood It stands and spreads like danger in a wood, And in the village street, where meanest weeds Can't stand untouched to fill their husks with seeds, The haughty thistle o'er all danger towers, In every place the very wasp of flowers. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DOWN BY THE CARIB SEA: 2. LOS CIGARILLOS by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON AT THE CHURCH DOOR by GEORGE SANTAYANA TETHYS' FESTIVAL: SHADOWS by SAMUEL DANIEL AMERICA: SONNET 2 by SYDNEY THOMPSON DOBELL MONADNOC by RALPH WALDO EMERSON WINTER HEAVENS by GEORGE MEREDITH SUMMER'S LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT: A LITANY IN TIME OF PLAGUE by THOMAS NASHE |