Their sturdy faith be ours,
And ours the love that overruns
Its rocky strength with flowers.
If the poet’s fancy was founded on fact, and if our lovely and wide-spread Mayflower was indeed the first blossom noted and christened by our forefathers, it seems as though the problem of a national flower must be solved by one so lovely and historic as to silence all dispute. And when we read the following prophetic stanzas which close the poem, showing that during another dark period in our nation’s history these brave little blossoms, struggling through the withered leaves, brought a message of hope and courage to the heroic heart of the Quaker poet, our feeling that they are peculiarly identified with our country’s perilous moments is intensified:
The Pilgrim’s wild and wintry day
At shadow round us draws;
The Mayflower of his stormy bay
Our Freedom’s struggling cause.
But warmer suns erelong shall bring
To life the frozen sod;