Noon and Night Flower

Noon and Night Flower written by Walter de la Mare

The Listeners and Other Poems (1912)

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    Not any flower that blows
    But shining watch doth keep;
Every swift changing chequered hour it knows
Now to break forth in beauty; now to sleep.

    This for the roving bee
    Keeps open house, and this
Stainless and clear is, that in darkness she
May lure the moth to where her nectar is.

    Lovely beyond the rest
    Are these of all delight:--
The tiny pimpernel that noon loves best,
The primrose palely burning through the night.

    One 'neath day's burning sky
    With ruby decks her place,
The other when Eve's chariot glideth by
Lifts her dim torch to light that dreaming face.

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