Explore "A November Daisy (of Birds and Flowers)" by Henry Van Dyke on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Afterthought of summer's bloom!
Late arrival at the feast, / Coming when the songs have ceased / And the merry guests departed, / Leaving but an empty room, / Silence, solitude, and gloom, -- / Are you lonely, heavy-hearted; / You, the last of all your kind, / Nodding in the autumn-wind; / Now that all your friends are flown, / Blooming late and all alone?
Nay, I wrong you, little flower, / Reading mournful mood of mine / In your looks, that give no sign / Of a spirit dark and cheerless!
You possess the heavenly power / That rejoices in the hour.
Glad, contented, free, and fearless, / Lift a sunny face to heaven / When a sunny day is given!
Make a summer of your own, / Blooming late and all alone!
Once the daisies gold and white / Sea-like through the meadow rolled: / Once my heart could hardly hold / All its pleasures. I remember, / In the flood of youth's delight / Separate joys were lost to sight.
That was summer! Now November / Sets the perfect flower apart; / Gives each blossom of the heart / Meaning, beauty, grace unknown, -- / Blooming late and all alone.
November, 1899.