Emily of New Moon

by L. M. Montgomery

I see thy cheerful face

Greeting and nodding everywhere

Careless of time and place.

“In boggy field or public road

Or cultured garden’s pale

You sport your petals satin-soft,

And down within the vale.”

So far, so good. But Emily wanted another verse to round the poem off properly and the divine afflatus seemed gone. She walked dreamily home, and by the time she reached New Moon she had got her verse and was reciting it to herself with an agreeable sense of completion.

“You cast your loveliness around