Pasque Flowers

Pasque Flower

 

A ruddy kite guards the gate –

Where Danes, Romans stood to gloat

Before the Glead Hawks picked their brains –

Above his cairn of bleached bones.

 

Rabbit warrens undermine

Forgotten graves of slain men,

And Grim’s Ditch lies overgrown

With junipers on every groin.

 

Beyond the combe, torn by tilth,

A temple founders under turf

And lowly cowslips claim their geld,

Blooms the hue of soldiers’ gold.

 

There, pasque flowers’ knops and thrums

Raise blood and gilt to ancient drums.

 

Notes: Pasque flowers – now exceedingly rare downland plants – are reputed to mark the places where Danish or Roman blood was spilt. It is certainly true that they have a tendency to grow on ancient earthworks, although it is probable that this is simply because they favour ground that has long been undisturbed. The poem describes one such ancient landscape in the Berkshire Downs where pasque flowers may still be seen. Glead Hawk is the Cheshire name for the Red Kite, which also inhabits the downland combes. “Thrums” is Gerard’s word for the golden stamens, and “knops” are the heads that succeed the purple flowers. See Geoffrey Grigson, The Englishman’s Flora, pp. 42-44; Richard Mabey, Flora Britannica, p. 44; Francesca Greenoak, British Birds: Their Folklore, Names and Literature, p. 56.

 

For more of my botanical poems, see my collection here:

 

www.scribd.com/doc/29536650/A-Poet-s-Nosegay-A-Botanical-...

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