The Fringed Gentian
Carol Gaboury, a member of our literary society until her
death in 1998, identified (in the Winter 1989 issue of Kindred Spirits Newsletter of Vermont) this information about
the poem, The Fringed Gentian: It was published in Godey's Lady's Book in
March 1884 as part of a continued story called Tam, the Story of a Woman by Ella Rodman Church and Augusta De Bubna. Montgomery used the words "Alpine Path" from this
poem as the title to her autobiography, published in Everywoman's World (1917).
Lift up thy dewy, fringed eyes,
O little Alpine Flower!
The tear that trembling on them lies
Has sympathetic power
To move my own; for I, too, dream
With thee of distant heights,
Whose lofty peaks are all agleam
With rosy, dazzling lights.
Where aspirations, hopes, desires,
Combining, fondly dwell --
Where burn the never-dying fires
Of genius' wondrous spell.
Such towering summits would I reach,
Who climb and grope in vain;
O little flower! the secret teach --
The weary way make plain.
Who dreams of wider spheres revealed
Up higher, near the sky,
Within the valley's narrow field
Cannot contented lie;
Who longs for mountain breezes rare,
Is restless down below --
Like me, for stronger, purer air
Thou pinest, too, I know.
Then whisper blossom, in thy sleep,
How I may upward climb
The Alpine path so hard, so steep,
That leads to heights sublime?
How may I reach that far-off goal
Of true and honored fame,
To write upon its shining scroll
A woman's humble name?
