I
THE year hath turned, and daily grows the light:
The garden stirs and wakens from its sleep,
And tiny spikes of green begin to creep
From the brown earth. With these doth
Nature write
Her bond and obligation to requite
Our labour: we have toiled and we shall reap.
See here, as earnest that she means to keep
Her word, she sends the Winter Aconite.
‘Tis the first blossom that the year hath seen,
This little globe of yellow’s brightest shade,
As though upon a nest of scanty green
A fairy bird its magic egg had laid.
Almost the smallest flower the garden grows,
And yet a flower when not another blows.
II
‘Tis only little minds that dare despise
The little for its seeming littleness.
Not seldom Nature labours to compress
The choicest product of her alchemies
Into a jewel of the smallest size;
Nor is the beauty so created less
Because she also with the like success
Can bid an oak-tree tower toward the skies.
For Nature is no modern workman, bound
For ever to monotonous routine
And reproduction of a single thing.
At different times she witches from the ground
Such varied forms and colours: even her green
She alters day by day from spring to spring.
III
For little gifts then let us thankful be,
Which come when gifts are rare. As much delight
From these we gather as when appetite
May feast on plenty. Rich, we scorn the fee
Which is so welcome in our penury.
This little flower is like the widow’s mite,
And should be fair and precious in our sight
As the June flowers on this now naked tree.
But wherefore should we argue and debate
About the values of the great and small?
Let us rejoice that we are nowise bound
To choose this flower to love and that to hate;
For every flower that issues from the ground
Is beautiful, and we can love them all.
(Robert Henry Forster)
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Based on Topics: Light Poems, Nature Poems, Fairness Poems, Flowers Poems, Beauty Poems, Sleep Poems, Success Poems, Money & Wealth Poems, Spring Poems, Charity Poems, Winter PoemsBased on Keywords: aconite, compress, obligation, reproduction, alchemies