| Alfred H. Miles, ed. The Sacred Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907. | | | Poems.
I. The Daisy | | By Henry Septimus Sutton (1825–1901) |
| | | A GOLD and silver cup | |
| Upon a pillar green, | |
| Earth holds her Daisy up | |
| To catch the sunshine in;— | |
| A dial-plant, set there | 5 |
| To show each radiant hour;— | |
| A field-astronomer, | |
| A sun-observing flower;— | |
| |
| A little rounded croft | |
| Where wingèd kine may graze;— | 10 |
| A golden meadow soft, | |
| Quadrille-ground for young fays;— | |
| A fenced-in yellow plot | |
| With pales milk-white and clean, | |
| Each tipt with crimson spot | 15 |
| And set in ground of green. | |
| |
| The children with delight | |
| To meet the Daisy run; | |
| They love to see how bright | |
| She shines upon the sun. | 20 |
| Like lowly white-crown’d queen | |
| She graciously doth bend, | |
| And stands with quiet mien | |
| The little children’s friend. | |
| |
| Sometimes the Daisy’s seen, | 25 |
| A simple rustic maid, | |
| In comely gown of green, | |
| And pure white frill array’d, | |
| Dreaming, like one in mood | |
| Of hope by fancy spun, | 30 |
| Awaiting to be wooed, | |
| And willing to be won. | |
| |
| The dandy Butterfly, | |
| All exquisitely dress’d, | |
| Before the Daisy’s eye | 35 |
| Displays his velvet vest; | |
| In vain is he array’d | |
| In all that gaudy show; | |
| What need hath rustic maid | |
| Of such a foppish beau? | 40 |
| |
| The vagrant Bee but sings | |
| For what he gets thereby, | |
| Nor comes, excepts he brings | |
| His pocket on his thigh; | |
| Then let him start aside | 45 |
| And woo some wealthier flower | |
| The Daisy’s not his bride, | |
| She hath no honey-dower. | |
| |
| The Gnat, old back-bent fellow, | |
| In frugal frieze-coat drest, | 50 |
| Seeks on her carpet yellow | |
| His tottering limbs to rest; | |
| He woos her with eyes dim, | |
| Voice thin, and aspect sage;— | |
| What careth she for him? | 55 |
| What mate is youth for age? | |
| |
| Upon her head she lifts, | |
| Where they can best be seen, | |
| Her little golden gifts | |
| In white-fringed basket green | 60 |
| Still ready to be met | |
| In every passing hour, | |
| The little children’s pet, | |
| Their ever-faithful flower. | | | | |
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