Imagination & Flowers

This is a poem that my mother would read to me when I was a child. She enjoyed the poetry of Robert Louis Stevenson and shared that love with her children. I think this is a perfect poem for spring! Read the first line and stop to think about it. "All the names I know from nurse..." creates a word picture that sets the stage for the rest of the poem. In your imagination, can you see Lady Hollyhock, wild bee wings, and tiny dames?

The Flowers

All the names I know from nurse:
Gardener's garters, Shepherd's purse,
Bachelor's buttons, Lady's smock,
And the Lady Hollyhock.
Fairy places, fairy things,
Fairy woods where the wild bee wings,
Tiny trees for tiny dames
These must all be fairy names!
Tiny woods below whose boughs
Shady fairies weave a house;
Tiny tree tops, rose or thyme,
Where the braver fairies climb!
Fair are grown-up people's trees,
But the fairest woods are these;
Where, if I were not so tall,
I should live for good and all.

~ Robert Louis Stevenson ~

The daffodils are done and now the tulips are a riot of color in my flower beds. Viewing the changes in the garden as spring advances is like watching a colorful fashion show!