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Home  »  An American Anthology, 1787–1900  »  1648 A Drifting Petal

Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900.

By Mary McNeilFenollosa

1648 A Drifting Petal

IF I, athirst by a stream, should kneel

With never a blossom or bud in sight,

Till down on the theme of its liquid night

The moon-white tip of a sudden keel,

A fairy boat,

Should dawn and float

To my hand, as only the Gods deserve,

The cloud-like curve,

The loosened sheaf,

The ineffable pink of a lotus leaf,—

I should know, I should feel, that far away

On the dimpled rim of a brighter day

A thought had blossomed, and shaken free

One sheath of its innermost soul for me.