Welcome back to Flower Poetry Fridays with Mrs. Sigourney. Each Friday a new poem will be posted from her The Voice Of Flowers.
THE DAHLIA AND VERBENA. Colorful Dahlias
A TALL and richly drest Dahlia boasted. She
lifted up her head haughtily, as though she felt
herself a queen. Her lips moved, and she was
heard thus to soliloquize :—
" I alone, of all the flowers around, am truly
beautiful. Which of them can compare with
me, in elegance of dress, or dignity of deport-
ment?
Yet I suffer for want of society. I cannot
associate with those around, who are destitute
of my accomplishments.
Here is an insipid Verbena at my feet, al-
ways trying to be sociable. She is so ill-bred
as to smile, when I meet her eye, as if she
were an acknowledged acquaintance.
It is in vain that I strive to convince her of
her vulgarity. I cannot even look down with
out seeing her. I wish she would move away,
and give place to some neighbor, more proper
for one of my rank.
I doubt whether she even knows that my
name is Lady Liverpool. I will throw her
a withering frown, and see if it is not possible
to repel her advances."
That night there came an early frost. The
splendid robes of the Dahlia were ruined by
its chilling touch. She hung her head in bit-
terness, and was ashamed to be seen.
But the little pale-cheeked Verbena, whom
she had so long despised, looked meekly up,
and spoke kind and cheering words. It had
been sheltered from the frost by the drapery
of its proud neighbor.
Forgetting the disdainful demeanor of the
Dahlia, it tenderly ministered to its sorrows,
and sent up its sweetest perfumes, to cheer
her, like a cloud of incense.
And as I bent down, admiring its sympathy,
there seemed to come from its meek example,
a gentle voice, " Go thou and do likewise."
Somehow, the meek Verbena was really good at letting the disdainful words of the Dahlia roll off her back. For at the end she comforted her cruel neighbor.
Being able to give such sweet offerings to one that despised her, the Verbena teaches us a lesson on sympathy.
Genuine care for her fellow flower. Let’s hope this catches on!
Come back next Friday for the next installment in our series of flower poems from Mrs. Sigourney’s The Voice of Flowers, “The Desert Flower”.
