A Chanted Calendar

By Sydney Dobell

1824-1874

FIRST came the primrose,
         On the bank high,
         Like a maiden looking forth
         From the window of a tower
         When the battle rolls below,
         So look'd she,
         And saw the storms go by.

         Then came the wind-flower
         In the valley left behind,
         As a wounded maiden, pale
         With purple streaks of woe,
         When the battle has roll'd by
         Wanders to and fro,
         So totter'd she,
         Dishevell'd in the wind.

         Then came the daisies,
         On the first of May,
         Like a banner'd show's advance
         While the crowd runs by the way,
With ten thousand flowers about them they came trooping through the
fields.
         As a happy people come,
         So came they,
         As a happy people come
         When the war has roll'd away,
         With dance and tabor, pipe and drum,
         And all make holiday.

         Then came the cowslip,
         Like a dancer in the fair,
         She spread her little mat of green,
         And on it danced she.
         With a fillet bound about her brow,
         A fillet round her happy brow,
         A golden fillet round her brow,
         And rubies in her hair.

DayPoems Poem No. 716
<a href="http://www.daypoems.net/poems/716.html">A Chanted Calendar by Sydney Dobell</a>

The DayPoems Poetry Collection, www.daypoems.net
Timothy Bovee, editor

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