To a Mountain Daisy

On Turning One Down with the Plow, in April, 1786

Wee, modest, crimson-tippèd flow’r, 
Thou’s met me in an evil hour; 
For I maun crush amang the stoure 
            Thy slender stem: 
To spare thee now is past my pow’r, 
            Thou bonie gem. 

Alas! it’s no thy neibor sweet, 
The bonie lark, companion meet, 
Bending thee ‘mang the dewy weet 
            Wi’ spreck’d breast, 
When upward-springing, blythe, to greet 
            The purpling east. 

Cauld blew the bitter-biting north 
Upon thy early, humble birth; 
Yet cheerfully thou glinted forth 
            Amid the storm, 
Scarce rear’d above the parent-earth 
            Thy tender form. 

The flaunting flowers our gardens yield 
High shelt’ring woods an’ wa’s maun shield: 
But thou, beneath the random bield 
            O’ clod or stane, 
Adorns the histie stibble-field 
            Unseen, alane. 

There, in thy scanty mantle clad, 
Thy snawie-bosom sun-ward spread, 
Thou lifts thy unassuming head 
            In humble guise; 
But now the share uptears thy bed, 
            And low thou lies! 

Such is the fate of artless maid, 
Sweet flow’ret of the rural shade! 
By love’s simplicity betray’d 
            And guileless trust; 
Till she, like thee, all soil’d, is laid 
            Low i’ the dust. 

Such is the fate of simple bard, 
On life’s rough ocean luckless starr’d! 
Unskilful he to note the card 
            Of prudent lore, 
Till billows rage and gales blow hard, 
            And whelm him o’er! 

Such fate to suffering Worth is giv’n, 
Who long with wants and woes has striv’n, 
By human pride or cunning driv’n 
            To mis’ry’s brink; 
Till, wrench’d of ev’ry stay but Heav’n, 
            He ruin’d sink! 

Ev’n thou who mourn’st the Daisy’s fate, 
That fate is thine—no distant date; 
Stern Ruin’s ploughshare drives elate, 
            Full on thy bloom, 
Till crush’d beneath the furrow’s weight 
            Shall be thy doom.