The Dandelion (Dens Leonis).

The Dandelion (Dens Leonis).

I love the Dandelion’s golden stars,
Gleaming in beauty o’er the vernal meads:
Some seventy years agone, I blew its seeds
To tell what ‘t was o’clock! My spirit wars
With Superstition—strives to break its yoke 5
For self and others; yet I love to see
My grandbairns, in their joyous innocency,
Blowing the down-wing’d seeds, when oft we walk
Along the foot-paths of my native vale:
And when they stop to pluck the hollow stems 10
To make their floral chains, I fancy gems,
Though rich and rare, in after years will fail
To give them equal pleasure. Are not we
Oft idling our lives away o’er seeds of Vanity?

George Markham Tweddell

[Sonnets on Trees and Flowers, p. 13.] Also published in Voice of
Masonry, Chicago, Illinois, U.S., January, 1887, Texas Masonic
Journal, Fort Worth, Texas, U.S., July, 1887 Northern Weekly
Gazette, April 3rd, 1897.