Orion, and Other Poems

by Charles G.D. Roberts

 

A BLUE BLOSSOM

 
A SMALL blue flower with yellow eye
    Hath mightier spell to move my soul
    Than even the mightiest notes which roll
From man’s most perfect minstrelsy.
    A flash, a momentary gleam,                                                        
5
    A glimpse of some celestial dream,
And tears alone are left to me.

Filled with a longing vague and dim,
    I hold the flower in every light;
    To purge my soul’s redarkened sight                                          
10
I grope till all my senses swim.
    In vain; I feel the ecstasy
    Only when suddenly I see
This pale star with the sapphire rim.

Nor hath the blossom such strange power                                      
15
    Because it saith "Forget me not"
    For some heart-holden, distant spot,
Or silent tongue, or buried hour.
    Methinks immortal memories
    Of some past scenes of Paradise                                               
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Speak to my spirit through the flower.

Forgotten is our ancient tongue;
    Too dull our ears, our eyes too blind,
    Even quite to catch its notes, or find
Its symbols written bright among                                                    
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    All shapes of beauty. But ’tis hard,
    When one can hear, to be debarred
From knowledge of the meaning sung.