Far upward 'neath a shelving cliff 

 Where cool and deep the shadows fall, 



The trembling fern its graceful fronds 

 Displays along the mossy wall. 



The wildflowers shun these craggy heights 

 Their haunts are in the vale below ; 



But beauty ever clothes the rocks 



Where Nature bids the ferns to grow. 



Let others cull the flowers that bloom 

 By wood and field, by stream and hedge ; 



For me there grows the dainty fern 

 That droops upon the stony ledge. 



