Literature Network » William Wordsworth » Poems in Two Volumes, Volume 2 » Foresight

Foresight

  Or the Charge of a Child to his younger Companion.

  That is work which I am rueing--
  Do as Charles and I are doing!
  Strawberry-blossoms, one and all,
  We must spare them--here are many:
  Look at it--the Flower is small,
  Small and low, though fair as any:
  Do not touch it! summers two
  I am older, Anne, than you.
  Pull the Primrose, Sister Anne!
  Pull as many as you can.                                 10
  --Here are Daisies, take your fill;
  Pansies, and the Cuckow-flower:
  Of the lofty Daffodil
  Make your bed, and make your bower;
  Fill your lap, and fill your bosom;
  Only spare the Strawberry-blossom!
  Primroses, the Spring may love them--
  Summer knows but little of them:
  Violets, do what they will,
  Wither'd on the ground must lie;                         20
  Daisies will be daisies still;
  Daisies they must live and die:
  Fill your lap, and fill your bosom,
  Only spare the Strawberry-blossom!

Literature Network » William Wordsworth » Poems in Two Volumes, Volume 2 » Foresight