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

By Harriet McEwenKimball

599 White Azaleas

AZALEAS—whitest of white!

White as the drifted snow

Fresh-fallen out of the night,

Before the coming glow

Tinges the morning light;

When the light is like the snow,

White,

And the silence is like the light:

Light, and silence, and snow,—

All—white!

White! not a hint

Of the creamy tint

A rose will hold,

The whitest rose, in its inmost fold;

Not a possible blush;

White as an embodied hush;

A very rapture of white;

A wedlock of silence and light:

White, white as the wonder undefiled

Of Eve just wakened in Paradise;

Nay, white as the angel of a child

That looks into God’s own eyes!