Hard to believe, but on this last day of 2018, there’s a tiny little clump of snowdrops already blooming in my garden. So I thought it would be fitting to include Wordsworth’s poem about these tiny white flowers.
TO A SNOWDROP
Lone flower, hemmed in with snows, and white as they
But hardier far, once more I see thee bend
Thy forehead as if fearful to offend,
Like an unbidden guest. Though day by day
Storms sallying from the mountain-tops, waylay
The rising sun, and on the plains descend;
Yet art though welcome, welcome as a friend
Whose zeal outruns his promise! Blue-eyed May
Shall soon behold this border thickly set
With bright jonquils, their odours lavishing
On the soft west-wind and his frolic peers;
Nor will I then thy modest grace forget,
Chaste snowdrop, venturous harbinger of spring,
And pensive monitor of fleeting years.
And with thoughts of January 1st and as gifs and wishes ping on my phone: Athbhliain shona díobh go léir!
