Secrets

Mary Mapes Dodge 
                                  
I'd like to be a daisy            
   In the clover,                 
That I might look up bravely      
   At my lover.                   
                                  
I'd bid the willing breezes       
   Bend me sweet,                 
That I might, as he passed me,    
   Touch his feet;                
                                  
I'd let the dew so quickly        
   Start and glisten,             
That, thinking I had called him,  
   He would listen.               
                                  
Yet would he listen vainly-       
   Happy me!                      
No bee could find my secret;      
   How could he?                  
                                  
If ever of the clover             
   Couch he made,                 
I'd softly kiss his eyelids       
   In the shade.                  
                                  
Then would I breathe sweet incense
   All for him,                   
And fill with perfect bloom       
   The twilight dim.              
                                  
What should I do, I wonder,       
   When he went?                  
Why, I would-like a daisy-        
   Be content.                    
                                  
Alack! to live so bravely,        
   Peace o'erladen,               
Has ne'er been granted yet        
   To simple maiden.