quote · Words worth keeping

When with a serious musing I behold The grateful and obsequious marigold; How duly every morning she displays Her open breast. When Titan spreads his rays, How she observes him in his daily walk. Still bending towards him her small slender stalk. For when he down declines, she droops and mourns, Bedew’d as ’twere, with tears till he returns; And how she veils her flowers when he is gone, As if she scorned to be looked on By an inferior eye, or did contemn To wait upon a meaner light than him. When thus I meditate, methinks the flowers Have spirits far more generous than ours; And give us fair examples to despise The servile fawning and idolatries Wherewith we court these earthly things below, Which merit not the service we bestow.

When with a serious musing I behold The grateful and obsequious marigold; How duly every morning she displays Her open breast. When Titan spreads his rays, How she observes him in his daily walk. Still bending towards him her small slender stalk. For when he down declines, she droops and mourns, Bedew’d as ’twere, with tears till he returns; And how she veils her flowers when he is gone, As if she scorned to be looked on By an inferior eye, or did contemn To wait upon a meaner light than him. When thus I meditate, methinks the flowers Have spirits far more generous than ours; And give us fair examples to despise The servile fawning and idolatries Wherewith we court these earthly things below, Which merit not the service we bestow.