Sweet William.....A beauty ever fresh and yet the same

New to our garden this Spring

 

Sweet William..........( Dianthus )

 

FLOWER of the homely but poetic name,

Loved by our fathers' fathers long ago,

Unchanging beauty thou hast yet to show,

A beauty ever fresh and yet the same,-

Here a deep crimson, here a scarlet flame,

Here a soft pink, and here a white like snow,

Setting this border's margin in a glow

Of colour that no lordlier flower can shame.

Whence came thy title? Is it wrong to dream,

That Shakespeare loved thee in the olden days,

And in a garden bordering Avon's stream

Honoured thy beauty with a word of praise,

And some good friend of flowers and poesy

Bestowed this title upon him and thee?

 

- Robert Henry Forster-

Done