Classic Poem

O YELLOW flowers by H ERRICK sung!
O yellow flowers that danced and swung
In W ORDSWORTH ' S verse, and now to me,
Unworthy, from this ‘pleasant lea,’
Laugh back, unchanged and ever young;—

Ah, what a text to us o'erstrung,
O'erwrought, o'erreaching, hoarse of lung,
You teach by that immortal glee,
O yellow flowers!

We, by the Age's oestrus stung,
Still hunt the New with eager tongue,
Vexed ever with the Old, but ye,
What ye have been ye still shall be,
When we are dust the dust among,
O yellow flowers!