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To celebrate the first day of May, we present a poem from Irish-American Reformed / United Presbyterian minister Boyd McCullough’s autobiography The Experience of Seventy Years (1895). The book is not yet on Log College Press, but it is a fascinating read and filled with his poetic verse. The following seems to be a tribute perhaps to the fragrant Trailing Arbutus (Epigaea repens), a flower of delicate beauty.
To a Wild Flower
Mrs. Margaret Cameron, of Bloomington Ferry, received anonymously a wild flower of rare beauty. She suspected that it came from her sister in Wisconsin. She pressed it and put it in her album and she desired a few verses to put in with it.
Little flower of beauty rare,
From Wisconsin’s woods you came,
With perfume you graced the air.
Trailing Love’s your pretty name.In the merry month of May
To my door your way you found,
When the singing birds are gay,
’Mong the trees with blossoms crowned.Not a word had you to say;
Not a message have you brought;
Yet a sister far away
Came at once into my thought.Wildwoods are your chosen spot,
In the garden bed you die;
Thus true love, which glads the cot,
From the lordly dome will fly.When to dust you shall depart,
As from dust your sprung.
Your remembrance in my heart,
Like a picture shall be hung.Wedded bliss was once my share,
Soon my sky was overcast.
Still my heart retains with care,
Memories of the happy past.Heaven has lent this precious boon
To the patient, trusting mind;
Earthly glories, fading soon,
Leave a sweet perfumer behind.
