John Burroughs Poems : Columbine

Above a lichened niche it clung,
Or did it leap from out a seam?--
Some hidden fire had found a tongue
And burst to light with vivid gleam.
It thrilled the eye, it cheered the place,
And gave the ledge a living grace.

The redstart flashing up and down,
The oriole whistling in the elm,
The kinglet with his ruby crown--
All wear the colors of thy realm;
And starling, too, with glowing coals--
So shine thy lamps by oak-tree boles.
 

Some grew by the wayside,
Some peered from the ledge,
Some flamed from a crevice,
And clung like a wedge;
Some rooted in débris
Of rocks and of trees,
And all were inviting
The wild banded bees.

Nature knows well the use of foils,
And knoweth how to recompense;
There lurks a grace in all her toils
And in her ruder elements;
And oft doth gleam a tenderness
The eye to charm, the ear to bless.