(The trailing arbutus, or Mayflower, grows abundantly in the vicinity
of Plymouth, and was the first flower that greeted the Pilgrims after
their fearful winter.)
Sad Mayflower! watched by winter stars
And nursed by winter gales,
With petals of the sleeted spars
And leaves of frozen sails!
What had she in those dreary hours,
Within her ice-rimmed bay,
In common with the wild-wood flowers,
The first sweet smiles of May?
Yet, "God be praised!" the Pilgrim said,
Who saw the blossoms peer
Above the brown leaves, dry and dead,
"Behold our Mayflower here!"
"God wills it: here our rest shall be,
Our years of wandering o'er,
For us the Mayflower of the sea
Shall spread her sails no more."
O sacred flowers of faith and hope,
As sweetly now as then
Ye bloom on many a birchen slope,
In many a pine-dark glen.
Behind the sea-wall's rugged length,
Unchanged, your leaves unfold,
Like love behind the manly strength
Of the brave hearts of old.
So live the fathers in their sons,
Their sturdy faith be ours,
And ours the love that overruns
Its rocky strength with flowers.
The Pilgrim's wild and wintry day
Its shadows round us draws;
The Mayflower of his stormy bay,
Our Freedom's struggling cause.
But warmer suns ere long shall bring
To life the frozen sod;
And through dead leaves of hope shall spring
Afresh the flowers of God!
--_Whittier._
[Illustration: CHESTNUT-SIDED WARBLER.
Life-size.
FROM COL. F. M. WOODRUFF.
6-99
COPYRIGHT 1899,
NATURE STUDY PUB. CO., CHICAGO.]