Amy Thornton Swartz - Two Quatrains (1927)

Forgotten Poems #21: The Book of Lost Rhymes

—: Duty :—

 
I have a little rockery,
    All planted full of posy seeds.
Now I must tend it carefully
    Or it will overgrow with weeds.
 

—: The Blue Flower :—

 
Chicory, chicory,
    Blue as the sky,
Turn your face toward me,
    As I pass by.
 

Amy Thornton Swartz (p. 1926-27, etc.)

P: John Martin's Book: A Magazine for Little Children (1926), The Kindergarten Primary Magazine (1927), etc.

Something a little lighter today, after a few heavier poems. There’s something so delicate and lovely about rhymed quatrains, when they’re done just right. The first has a regular form of 8-8-8-8, while the second has an alternating form of 6-4-6-4, also able to be scanned as a couplet, in 10-10;

 
       Chicory, chicory, blue as the sky,
       Turn your face t'ward me, as I pass by.

I love poems about flowers and gardens, they remind me of my mum and my nana, and their respective gardens. Here’s a few tanka and haiku I wrote in memory of my nana, who died almost 15 years ago;

      under all that sky nana's grave

      the same flowers
      which adorned
      my nana's
      casket
      spring morning

      the last time
      i sat in nana's garden . . .
      the last time

      ah nana
      i remember you
      today,
      blue-skied
      & garden-like

Forgotten Poets Presents:

Forgotten Poems, a living anthology of obscure and out-of-print poetry from the late-1800s and early-1900s. Explore the archives:

More from The Book of Lost Rhymes . . .

More poems about gardens . . .