Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

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

By Titus MunsonCoan

786 A Dream of Flowers

EVEN at their fairest still I love the less

The blossoms of the garden than the blooms

Won by the mountain climber: theirs the tints

And forms that most delight me,—theirs the charm

That lends an aureole to the azure heights

Whereon they flourish, children of the dews

And mountain streamlets.

But in sleep sometimes

Mountain and meadow blend their gifts in one.

This morn I trod the secret path of dreams,

And, lo! my wilding flowers sprang thick around me,

Alpine and lowland too; and with them sprang

Blossoms that never had I known before

Except in poets’ pages—fancied forms

And hues that shone in more than Alpine light.

Poppies incarnadine and rosemary,

And violets with gentle eyes were there,

And their sweet cousinry, the periwinkles;

Night-blooming cereus, agrimony, rue,

And stately damask roses, Eastern queens,

The noblest-born of flowers; and by their side

The panthers of the meadow, tiger-lilies;

Came with her trembling banner of perfumed bells

The lily of the valley, and the jessamine,

Princesses twain with maiden fragrance pure;

The azure of the Alpine gentian shone

Intense beneath the rival blue of heaven;

Along the heights blossomed the Alpine rose,

And higher yet the starry edelweiss,—

And sweet the wind came o’er the visioned Alp.

But now I seemed to wonder at the view,

To my dimmed sense a riddle; then was ’ware

Of daytime colors blending with my dream,

And cleared my eyes, and saw my roguish girl,

A witch of seven, with flowers in both her hands,

Fresh-gathered in my garden, stealing in

Upon my morning vision, and waving me

Their fragrance. “Wake!” she cried, and I awoke

To her, a sweeter flower than all the rest!