Sara Teasdale, comp. (1884–1933).
The Answering Voice: One Hundred Love Lyrics by Women. 1917. | | | | Carnations | | By Margaret Widdemer |
| | | Carnations and my first love! And he was seventeen, | |
| And I was only twelve years—a stately gulf between! | |
| I broke them on the morning the school-dance was to be, | |
| To pin among my ribbons in hopes that he might see…. | |
| And all the girls stood breathless to watch as he came through | 5 |
| With curly crest and grand air that swept the heart from you! | |
| And why he paused at my side is more than I can know— | |
| Shyest of the small girls who all adored him so— | |
| I said it with my prayer-times: I walked with head held high: | |
| “Carnations are your flower!” he said as he strode by. | 10 |
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| Carnations and my first love! The years are passed a score, | |
| And I recall his first name, and scarce an eyelash more…. | |
| And those were all the love-words that either of us said— | |
| Perhaps he may be married—perhaps he may be dead. | |
| And yet,… to smell carnations, their spicy, heavy sweet, | 15 |
| Perfuming all some sick-room, or passing on the street, | |
| Then … still the school-lamps flicker, and still the Lancers play, | |
| And still the girls hold breathless to watch him go his way, | |
| And still my child-heart quivers with that first ecstasy— | |
| “Carnations are your flower!” my first love says to me! | 20 | | | |
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