Wild flowers
Oceans of them
line the roads
through the woods
border the edges
of the water-runlets
grow all along the old fences
and are scattered in profusion
over the fields
An eight-petalled blossom
of gold-yellow clear and bright
with a brown tuft in the middle
nearly as large as a silver half-dollar
is very common : yesterday
on a long drive I noticed it
thickly lining the borders
of the brooks everywhere
Then there is a beautiful weed
covered with blue flowers
however white is the prevailing colour
but there are all hues and beauties
especially on the frequent tracts
of half-opened scrub-oak
and dwarf cedar hereabout
—wild asters of all colours
Despite the frost-touch
the hardy little chaps
maintain themselves
in all their bloom
Walt Whitman
(Adapted by John Lyons from Specimen Days, first published in 1882.)