Buttercups And Daisies

  Buttercups and daisies,     Oh, the pretty flowers;   Coming ere the spring time,     To tell of sunny hours.   While the trees are leafless,     While the fields are bare,   Buttercups and daisies     Spring up here and there.   Ere the snowdrop peepeth,     Ere the crocus bold,   Ere the early primrose     Opes its paly gold,   Somewhere on the sunny bank     Buttercups are bright;   Somewhere 'mong the frozen grass     Peeps the daisy white.   Little hardy flowers,     Like to children poor,     Playing in their sturdy health   By their mother's door,   Purple with the north wind,     Yet alert and bold;   Fearing not, and caring not,     Though they be a-cold!   What to them is winter!     What are stormy showers!   Buttercups and daisies     Are these human flowers!   He who gave them hardships     And a life of care,   Gave them likewise hardy strength     And patient hearts to bear. MARY HOWITT