Thursday, September 9, 2010

Fringed Gentian


God made a little gentian; 
It tried to be a rose 
And failed, and all the summer laughed. 
But just before the snows 
There came a purple creature 
That ravished all the hill; 
And summer hid her forehead, 
And mockery was still. 
The frosts were her condition; 
The Tyrian* would not come 
Until the North evoked it. 
"Creator! shall I bloom?"
---Emily Dickinson

*Tyrian: A shade of purple, named for the dye made in the ancient city of Tyre