The White Anemone
’Tis the white anemone, fashioned so
Like to the stars of the winter snow,
First thinks, “If I come too soon, no doubt
I shall seem but the snow that stayed too long,
So ’tis I that will be Spring’s unguessed scout,”
And wide she wanders the woods among.
Then, from out of the mossiest hiding-places,
Smile meek moonlight-colored faces
Of pale primroses puritan,
In maiden sisterhood demure;
Each virgin floweret faint and wan
With the bliss of her own sweet breath so pure.
Owen Meredith.
(Edward Robert Bulwer-Lytton.)