Crocus Poems

Table of Contents

1. Crocuses, Crocuses, How You Grow

   by Annette Wynne

   Crocuses, crocuses, how you grow,
   Like a lot of soldiers in a straight row;
   I would be your captain, give the command,
   But you only stare at me and stupidly stand,
   Helmeted in yellow and purple and reds;
   But for all your straight lines and soldierly heads,
   Not a step you march forth nor answer my call—
   So I'm afraid, crocuses, you're not soldiers at all!
   

2. The Crocus's Soliloquy

   by Hannah Flagg Gould

   
   

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   Down in my solitude under the snow,
   Where nothing cheering can reach me;
   Here, without light to see how to grow,
   I'll trust to nature to teach me.
   

   I will not despair, nor be idle, nor frown,
   Locked in so gloomy a dwelling;
   My leaves shall run up, and my roots shall run down,
   While the bud in my bosom is swelling.
   

   Soon as the frost will get out of my bed,
   From this cold dungeon to free me,
   I will peer up with my little bright head;
   All will be joyful to see me.
   

   Then from my heart will young petals diverge,
   As rays of the sun from their focus;
   I from the darkness of earth will emerge
   A happy and beautiful Crocus!
   

   Gaily arrayed in my yellow and green,
   When to their view I have risen,
   Will they not wonder how one so serene
   Came from so dismal a prison?
   

   Many, perhaps, from so simple a flower
   This little lesson may borrow—
   Patient to-day, through its gloomiest hour,
   We come out the brighter to-morrow!
   

3. Crocus

   by May Byron

   
   

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   Gold flame and silver flame,
   Burning through the mould,
   In the east wind's scornful breath.
   When the world's a-cold:
   Fiery from the earth's red heart,
   Leap they to the light,
   Gold flame and silver flame,
   Crocus yellow and white.
   

   Look, you starveling wayfarers,
   Shivering as you go,
   Watching lest the leaden sky
   Break in blinding snow:
   See the gray, the iron soil,
   Cleft by sudden heat!
   Gold flame and silver flame
   Flicker at your feet.
   

   Torches of the tiny year,
   Cressets put to mark
   Pathways where the spring may tread,
   Groping through the dark:
   Fires to warm the frozen heart,
   Candles rare and small,
   Gold flame and silver flame
   Glow beside the wall.
   

4. Crocuses and Violets

   by Harvey Carson Grumbine

   
   

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   Crocuses and violets,
   How bright and fair ye bloom to-day!
   For you I tune my triolets,
   Crocuses and violets,
   And let others sigh regrets
   For that June's so far away;
   Crocuses and violets,
   How bright and fair ye bloom to-day!
   

   Vanguard of the hosts of flowers,
   Trumpeters of conquering joys,
   Blaze the way for soother hours,
   Vanguard of the hosts of flowers!
   Blessings for your balmy dowers
   Now that sleety winter cloys,
   Vanguard of the hosts of flowers,
   Trumpeters of conquering joys!
   

5. On Seeing a Crocus and a Dandelion in January

   by Harvey Carson Grumbine

   
   

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   The weary watcher at the window stands
   With moaning heart all dolorous and forlorn;
   "Ah, when will break the lilac-scented morn?
   When will these icy fetters burst their bands?"
   The weary watcher wrings his pleading hands:
   "And are my hopes of all fruition shorn—
   The sunnier smiles of May and April worn?
   Has winter frozen, then, Time's hour-glass sands?"
   

   Behold a crocus, in his eye a tear,
   Meek tribute to the season's sorrows old,
   And there a dandelion flaming bold:
   "We are the changelings of the yester-year,
   
   Strewn flowers fallen from his funeral bier; We too must pass into his grave grown cold."
   

6. The Spring Race

   by Annette Wynne

   Said the wee yellow crocus with hurrying feet
   To the hurrying bluebird, "I'll beat, O I'll beat,"
   But the bluebird called, "Why
   I'll be back in a jiffy through air and through sky;
   O there's no doubt I'll win,
   For I'm sure I'll be in
   At the very first bound;"
   Then the crocus gave one good push from the ground,
   But what do you think?—at that very same minute—
   She saw a near tree with the puffing bird in it!
   They looked at each other and then at the sun,
   And then they both laughed—for it's strange! but both won!
   And quite out of breath they sat thinking together,
   How the old places looked and what beautiful weather!
   

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