LITTLE yellow darling, <br />Delicate and pale, <br />Can thy gentle loveliness <br />Brook such a wintry gale, <br />That nestled by this rushing stream, <br />Thou sleepest like a lost sunbeam! <br /> <br />Little yellow darling, <br />At the breath of your perfume, <br />I sit within that quiet nook <br />Where many sisters bloom; <br />And all believing, (who does not!) <br />Pore on the lays of Walter Scott. <br /> <br />Such old romantic fancies <br />Your perfume brings to me, <br />Half of the proud baronial times, <br />And half of woodland free. <br />A blended vision strangely wrought <br />Of where I was and what I thought. <br /> <br />The thick green boughs above me wave, <br />The falling foam-drops leap, <br />And lazily unto the bank <br />The happy cattle creep. <br />Where thou, the first of Spring's fair daughters, <br />Art wet with spray of dancing waters. <br /> <br />How many a joyous noontide walk, <br />And evening frolic wild, <br />Of which thou wert the treasure-trove <br />While I was yet a child, <br />Is with thy tender beauty blent, <br />And wafted on thy pale pure scent! <br /> <br />No clouded thought of darker hours <br />My dreaming spirit grieves;-- <br />(Which for us all clings round some flowers <br />And lurks within their leaves,) <br />Or meets me, greeting thee again <br />To cause a gladness dashed with pain. <br /> <br />But days as innocent as thou, <br />As peacefully employed, <br />Which left no shadow on my brow, <br />I there with thee enjoyed; <br />And year by year thy smiles once more <br />Something of that bright dawn restore. <br /> <br />Sleep quietly, fair bud of hope, <br />To wake thee were a crime, <br />Unfold in all thy simple scope <br />For all the appointed time-- <br />Some other eye than mine may bless <br />The teaching in thy loveliness.<br /><br />Bessie Rayner Parkes<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-first-primrose/
