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Noon Edition

"The Shepherd's Daffodil" - A Poem

daffodil meadow

March flowers seem to have a cool palette in keeping with the cool weather. While yellows, whites and blues predominate there are some rich purples and oranges to be seen among the dwarf iris and crocus. But yellow is definitely the color of the month in my garden, and I suspect in yours.

The daffodil, tossed around by the March winds, is clearly the flower of the month. This flower has been the subject of more spring poems across the centuries than any other flower. This poem by Elizabethan poet Michael Drayton is entitled "The Shepherd's Daffodil."

Shepherd, as thou cam'st this way

By yonder little hill

Or as thou through the fields didst stray,

Saw'st  thou my daffodil?

Through yonder vale as I did pass,

Descending from the hill,

I met a smiling bonny lass;

They call her Daffodil.

Whose presence, as along she went,

The pretty flowers did greet,

As though their heads they downward bent

With homage to her feet.

And all the shepherds that were nigh

From top of every hill,

Unto the valleys loud did cry

There goes sweet Daffodil.

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