CARDINAL FLOWER. 



Whence is yonder flower so strangely bright ? 



Would the sunset s last reflected shine 

 Flame so red from that dead flush of light? 



Dark with passion is its lifted line, 

 Hot, alive, amid the falling night. 



Still it burns intenser as I gaze, 



Till its heart-fire quickens with my own, 



And when night shuts in the dusky ways 



Red and strange shine out the lights of home, 



Where my flower its parting sign delays. 



86 



