Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

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

By Augusta CooperBristol

870 The Pyxidanthera

SWEET child of April, I have found thy place

Of deep retirement. Where the low swamp ferns

Curl upward from their sheaths, and lichens creep

Upon the fallen branch, and mosses dark

Deepen and brighten, where the ardent sun

Doth enter with restrained and chastened beam,

And the light cadence of the blue-bird’s song

Doth falter in the cedar,—there the Spring

In gratitude hath wrought the sweet surprise

And marvel of thy unobtrusive bloom.

Most perfect symbol of my purest thought,—

A thought so close and warm within my heart

No words can shape its secret, and no prayer

Can breathe its sacredness—be thou my type,

And breathe to one, who wanders here at dawn,

The deep devotion, which, transcending speech,

Lights all the folded silence of my heart

As thy sweet beauty doth the shadow here.

So let thy clusters brighten, star on star

Of pink and white about his lingering feet,

Till, dreaming and enchanted, there shall pass

Into his life the story that my soul

Hath given thee. So shall his will be stirred

To purest purpose and divinest deed,

And every hour be touched with grace and light.