96 The Painted Cup. 



THE PAINTED CUP. 



Bryant has written some fanciful lines to the Castilleja, which 

 might form a proper pendant to the description of that plant 

 and its representation in Plate 11. 



Scarlet tufts 

 Are glowing in the green, like flakes of fire ; 

 The wanderers of the prairie know them well, 

 And call that brilliant flower the Painted Cup. 

 Now if thou art a poet, tell me not 

 That these bright chalices were tinted thus 

 To hold the dew for fairies, when they meet 

 On moonlight evenings in the hazel bowers, 

 And dance till they are thirsty. Call not up 

 Amid that fresh and virgin solitude, 

 The faded fancies of an elder world, 

 But leave these scarlet cups to spotted moths 

 Of June, and glistening flies and humming birds, 

 To drink from, when on all these boundless lawns 

 The morning sun looks hot. Or let the wind 

 O'erturn in sport their ruddy brims, and pour 

 A sudden shower upon the strawberry plant, 

 To swell the reddening fruit that even now 

 Breathes a slight fragrance from the sunny slope 



But art thou of a gayer fancy ? Well 



Let then the gentle Manitou of flowers, 

 Lingering amid the bloomy waste he loves, 



Though all his swarthy worshippers are gone 



Slender and small, his rounded cheek all brown 

 And ruddy with the sunshine ; let him come 

 On summer mornings when the blossoms wake, 

 And part with little hands the spiky grass ; 

 And, touching with his cherry lips, the edge 

 Of these bright beakers, drain the gathered dew. 



