To The Fringed Gentian
September 23rd, 2016
Thou blossom bright with autumn dew,
And coloured with the heaven's own blue,
That openest when the quiet light
Succeeds the keen and frosty night.
Thou comest not when violets lean
O'er wandering brooks and springs unseen,
Or columbines, in purple dressed,
Nod o'er the ground-bird's hidden nest.
Thou waitest late and com'st alone,
When woods are bare and birds are flown,
And frosts and shortening days portend
The aged year is near his end.
Then doth thy sweet and quiet eye
Look through its fringes to the sky,
Blue—blue—as if that sky let fall
A flower from its cerulean wall.
I would that thus, when I shall see
The hour of death draw near to me,
Hope, blossoming within my heart,
May look to heaven as I depart.
- William Cullen Bryant
Photographed in Marlborough Forest, September 4th.
September 23rd, 2016
Thou blossom bright with autumn dew,
And coloured with the heaven's own blue,
That openest when the quiet light
Succeeds the keen and frosty night.
Thou comest not when violets lean
O'er wandering brooks and springs unseen,
Or columbines, in purple dressed,
Nod o'er the ground-bird's hidden nest.
Thou waitest late and com'st alone,
When woods are bare and birds are flown,
And frosts and shortening days portend
The aged year is near his end.
Then doth thy sweet and quiet eye
Look through its fringes to the sky,
Blue—blue—as if that sky let fall
A flower from its cerulean wall.
I would that thus, when I shall see
The hour of death draw near to me,
Hope, blossoming within my heart,
May look to heaven as I depart.
- William Cullen Bryant
Photographed in Marlborough Forest, September 4th.
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guruwench
September 24th, 2016 at 11:12 am
Thank you so much for this photo. I've never seen a fringed gentian before, and it's a plot point in a novel I've loved since my teens (A Summer to Die by Lois Lowry). It's beautiful!!
xiphia
September 24th, 2016 at 11:47 am
Lovely. :)
Suzanne
September 24th, 2016 at 2:03 pm
guruwench: You're welcome! (And you got me curious, I had to go look up that novel, which I hadn't heard of before.) It is a beautiful wildflower, and a pretty uncommon one (picky about its habitat.) I had never seen it myself before now.
mustangsallie
September 24th, 2016 at 4:23 pm
What a gorgeous shade of intense blue, and the poem is lovely as well.
Mike
October 1st, 2016 at 4:15 pm
Nice catch of them open... glad you managed to find them in good light.
Also, I like the poem!