To a Wild Flower by Delwin Rees Buckner

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jul 23, 1912

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 39, No. 28.

To a Wild Flower

By Delwin Rees Buckner

Which I Thoughtlessly Pulled to Pieces One Day

By Delwin Rees Buckner

One May morn, when the world seemed dreamy fair, I glimpsed a gay flower courtesying to the sun; But, drowned in thought, I plucked off, one by one, Its waxen wings, and left it beauty-bare, To wither 'neath the noontide's tiger glare. Then, cut by conscience for the deed I'd done— To've torn to threads what God Himself had spun— I begged His pardon in an earnest prayer.

Poor flowerlet, martyred by my ruthless hand! Its bowl of nectar, mixed with dew or rain, Might well have given fullest, unfeigned joy To bee or butterfly or beetle; and Its fragrance might have soothed a couch of pain; Its purity, reclaimed a wayward boy.

Berisso, Argentina.