AS on the plain shoot up the wheatstalks So do the thoughts in the spirit of man Grow up and waver; But the gentle thoughts of the poet Are as the red and blue-colour'd flowers Merrily blooming between them. Red and blue-colour'd flowers! The surly reaper rejects you as useless, Wooden flails all-scornfully thresh you, Even the needy traveller, Whom your sight rejoices and quickens, Shaketh his head, And calleth you pretty weeds; But the rustic virgin, The twiner of garlands, Doth honour and pluck you, And with you decketh her beauteous locks, And thus adorn'd, makes haste to the dance, Where pipes and fiddles sweetly are sounding, Or to the silent beech-tree, Where the voice of the loved one still sweeter doth sound Than pipes or than fiddles. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE LAST CHANTEY by RUDYARD KIPLING ANIMAL TRANQUILITY AND DECAY; A SKETCH by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH JUDITH by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH AN EASTER HYMN by THOMAS BLACKBURN NAN'S SONG, FR. MIDSUMMER EVE by GORDON BOTTOMLEY EARLY SPRING IN VERMONT by DANIEL LEAVENS CADY DRINKING VERSUS THINKING; OR, A SONG AGAINST THE NEW PHILOSOPHY by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE |