Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE CROCUS, by HARRIET ELEANOR HAMILTON (BAILLE) KING


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE CROCUS, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Out of the frozen earth below
Last Line: Till a sunbeam dissolve it into the same.
Alternate Author Name(s): Hamilton-king, Harriet Eleanor
Subject(s): Crocuses; Nature; Plants; Planting; Planters


OUT of the frozen earth below,
Out of the melting of the snow,
No flower, but a film, I push to light;
No stem, no bud, -- yet I have burst
The bars of winter, I am the first,
O Sun, to greet thee out of the night!

Bare are the branches, cold is the air,
Yet it is fire at the heart I bear,
I come, a flame that is fed by none:
The summer hath blossoms for her delight,
Thick and dewy and waxen-white,
Thou seest me golden, O golden Sun!

Deep in the warm sleep underground
Life is still, and the peace profound:
Yet a beam that pierced, and a thrill that smote
Call'd me and drew me from far away; --
I rose, I came, to the open day
I have won, unshelter'd, alone, remote.

No bee strays out to greet me at morn,
I shall die ere the butterfly is born,
I shall hear no note of the nightingale;
The swallow will come at the break of green,
He will never know that I have been
Before him here when the world was pale.

They will follow, the rose with the thorny stem,
The hyacinth stalk, -- soft airs for them;
They shall have strength, I have but love:
They shall not be tender as I, --
Yet I fought here first, to bloom, to die,
To shine in his face who shines above.

O Glory of heaven, O Ruler of morn,
O Dream that shap'd me, and I was born
In thy likeness, starry, and flower of flame;
I lie on the earth, and to thee look up,
Into thy image will grow my cup,
Till a sunbeam dissolve it into the same.





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