POEM: Parody of William Cullen Bryant

THE YELLOW VIOLET

When beechen buds begin to swell,
  And wood the blue-bird's warble know,
The yellow violet's modest bell
  Peeps from the last year's leaves below.

Ere russet fields their green resume,
  Sweet flower, I love, in forest bare,
To meet thee, when they faint perfume
  Alone is in the virgin air.

Of all her train, the hands of Spring
  First plant thee in the watery mould,
And I have seen thee blossoming
  Beside the snow-bank's edges cold.

Thy parent sun, who bade thee view
  Pale skies, and chilling moisture sip,
Has bathed thee in his own bright hue,
  And streaked with jet thy glowing lip.

Yet slight thy form, and low thy seat,
  And earthward bent thy gentle eye,
Unapt the passing view to meet,
  When loftier flowers are flaunting nigh.

Oft, in the sunless April day,
  Thy early smile has stayed my walk;
But midst the gorgeous blooms of May,
  I passed thee on thy humble stalk.

So they, who climb to wealth, forget
  The friends in darker fortunes tried.
I copied them--but I regret
  That I should ape the ways of pride.

And when again the genial hour
  Awakes the painted tribes of light,
I'll not o'erlook the modest flower
  That made the woods of April bright.
                William Cullen Bryant, 1821


VIOLET ROTUNDIFOLIA

(Bryant's "The Yellow Violet" re-worked
a la the Age of Enlightenment)

When Fagus buds protuberant
  And sings the Musicapidae,
There blooms the small, herbaceous plant
  Of fam'ly Violaceae.

Its open flow'r, with sepals green
  And petals five conspicuous,
Assists, with form of pistil seen,
  Taxonomist meticulous.

In woods this species oft is found
  In eastern states like Conn. and Mass.--
If it has rhizomes underground,
  You'll see it's in a separate class.

On this identity depends:
  Abundant where most temperate,
A leafy, large stipule subtends
  Leaves heart-shaped, simple, alternate.

If each seed's oval-shaped and small,
  If basal petal's large and spurred,
If black-streaked yellow overall,
  Its geneaology's assured.

Its symmetry bilateral
  Along its length its anthers split,
With odor just discernable--
  Give clues to subdividing it.

And so we know, by rule of thumb,
  Its genus is chasmogamous,
And must not be confused with sum-
  mer's lesser-known cheistogamous.
                Jessica Shaver, 1991