Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 7.djvu/28

 1 6 THE GRANITE MONTHLY.

THE EDELWEISS.

��BY C. JENNIE SWAINE.

iliive you heard the golden legend

Of the edelweiss' floweret fair. Whose fragrance, lilie an incense,

Fills the chilly, winter air; Close to the snow it blossoms,

Star-lil<e, and pure and white, As the snow-stai s adrift in the north wind

On the mountain's dizzy height.

This is the (juaint. old legend.

Grown sacred and sweet by time, Which the simple bards of the mountains

Have inwoven with song and rhyme: " An angel v.andered from heaven,

All spotless and undetiled, And dwelt in the heart of a maiden

In the mountain passes wild.

•• Her lips were rosebuds of ruby,

Kissed by the fragrant dew, Hei' eyes were of summer azure.

With the sunlight shining through; Pure and sweet as the lilies

Willi a heart that was tender and true, Y'et no Ivingly knight or lover,

flight the beautiful maiden woo.

" So her lovers grown mad with their i)leadiiig'.

Fraj'ed the gods in their wild dispair. Away from the vision of mortals.

The angel maiden to bear ; And so. up the i)urple mountains,

When the sunset tires burned low. They bore her away in the gloaming.

And laid her beside the snow.

"Tlien under the cover of shadows

In the nuigical midnight hour. The goddess of love transformed her

Into a snow-white fl(n\er; And close b}^ the crystal glaciers,

In a cradle of mosses wai'm, It grew into fadeless beautj'.

Kocked by the mountain storm.

•' Since then, doth the doubting lover

Scale the perilous solitude. And finding the edelweiss blossom.

He counts an omen for good ; And he lays it away in his Ijosom,

A talisman sacred and sweet. Making two hearts one in their beating

When laid at a fair maiden's feet."

This is the golden legend

Of the edelweiss blossom fair. Whose fragrance, like an incense,

Fills the chilly winter air; The flower which the peasant ever

Holds tenderly sacred to love, And a tyi)e of Avomanhood holy,

As akin to the angels above.

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