Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE LURE OF THE BUTTERCUP, by ELEANOR STIMMEL


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE LURE OF THE BUTTERCUP, by                    
First Line: Why do you hang your head like that?
Last Line: Bent down and kissed the lovely face.
Subject(s): Flowers


"Why do you hang your head like that?"
Said a buttercup to a violet:
"You turn your pretty face away
And hide beneath your bonnet gay --
Your bonnet so blue with a bow on the crown
And a long green ribbon hanging down.
You're such a modest little flower
As you nestle down in your leafy bower.
Won't you look up at the sunny sky?
Do you never watch the clouds go by?"

The violet tossed her dainty head
And to the buttercup she said:
"I love in the earth's embrace to rest,
She folds me close on her tender breast.
I love the shadows under the trees,
The gentle rain and cooling breeze.
I grow aweary of the sun,
And so I keep my bonnet on.
Do you not find his rays too bright,
And await with joy the caress of night?"

To this the buttercup made reply:
"'Tis the sun's great task to glorify
And to make glad this world of ours
As he runs his course and tells the hours.
He turns bleak winter into spring,
The hills and valleys bloom and sing.
His gracious bounty he'll not withhold,
He fills to the brim my cup of gold.
But yours is a beauty of richer hue
For love was given the heart of you."

The little violet thus beguiled
Looked up at the buttercup and smiled.
And the buttercup, with winsome grace,
Bent down and kissed the lovely face.





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