PINK 



was the first flower to greet the Pilgrims after their fearful 

 winter. ' ' In the poem itself he wonders what the old ship had 



Within her ice-rimmed bay 

 In common with the wild-wood flowers, 

 The first sweet smiles of May ? 



and continues 



Yet " God be praised ! " the Pilgrim said, 



Who saw the blossoms peer 

 Above the brown leaves, dry and dead, 



" Behold our Mayflower here ! " 



God wills it, here our rest shall be, 



Our years of wandering o'er, 

 For us the Mayflower of the sea 



Shall spread her sails no more. 



O sacred flowers of faith and hope, 



As sweetly now as then, 

 Ye bloom on many a birchen slope, 



In many a pine-dark glen. 



So live the fathers in their sons, 



Their sturdy faith be ours, 

 And ours the love that overruns 



Its rocky strength with flowers. 



If the poet's fancy was founded on fact, and if our lovely and 

 widespread Mayflower was indeed the first blossom noted and 

 christened by our forefathers, it seems as though the problem of 

 a national flower must be solved by one so lovely and historic as 

 to silence all dispute. And when we read the following prophet- 

 ic stanzas which close the poem, showing that during another 

 dark period in*our nation's history these brave little blossoms, 

 struggling through the withered leaves, brought a message of 

 hope and courage to the heroic heart of the Quaker poet, our 

 feeling that they are peculiarly identified with our country's 

 perilous moments is intensified : 



The Pilgrim's wild and wintry day 



At shadow round us draws ; 

 The Mayflower of his stormy bay 



Our Freedom's struggling cause. 



But warmer suns erelong shall bring 



To life the frozen sod ; 

 And, through dead leaves of hope shall spring 



Afresh the flowers of God ! 

 174 



