Poem for Thursday and Last Spring's Flowers

The Tuft of Flowers
By Robert Frost

I went to turn the grass once after one
Who mowed it in the dew before the sun.
 
The dew was gone that made his blade so keen
Before I came to view the levelled scene.
 
I looked for him behind an isle of trees;
I listened for his whetstone on the breeze.
 
But he had gone his way, the grass all mown,
And I must be, as he had been,—alone,
 
‘As all must be,’ I said within my heart,
‘Whether they work together or apart.’
 
But as I said it, swift there passed me by
On noiseless wing a ‘wildered butterfly,
 
Seeking with memories grown dim o’er night
Some resting flower of yesterday’s delight.
 
And once I marked his flight go round and round,
As where some flower lay withering on the ground.
 
And then he flew as far as eye could see,
And then on tremulous wing came back to me.
 
I thought of questions that have no reply,
And would have turned to toss the grass to dry;
 
But he turned first, and led my eye to look
At a tall tuft of flowers beside a brook,
 
A leaping tongue of bloom the scythe had spared
Beside a reedy brook the scythe had bared.
 
I left my place to know them by their name,
Finding them butterfly weed when I came.
 
The mower in the dew had loved them thus,
By leaving them to flourish, not for us,
 
Nor yet to draw one thought of ours to him.
But from sheer morning gladness at the brim.
 
The butterfly and I had lit upon,
Nevertheless, a message from the dawn,
 
That made me hear the wakening birds around,
And hear his long scythe whispering to the ground,
 
And feel a spirit kindred to my own;
So that henceforth I worked no more alone;
 
But glad with him, I worked as with his aid,
And weary, sought at noon with him the shade;
 
And dreaming, as it were, held brotherly speech
With one whose thought I had not hoped to reach.
 
‘Men work together,’ I told him from the heart,
‘Whether they work together or apart.’

-------- 

Wednesday was another chilly day, so I spent it mostly indoors doing end-of-year things like uploading photos to 2020 albums before I need to start 2021 albums and backing up files. We had on the Duke's Mayo Bowl, a brand and a football competition I never heard of before this year, but Wisconsin was playing in it (and indeed they won). Son again had a lot of work, but we took a walk anyway around the neighborhood to see the birds and squirrels. 

We watched the first half of The Midnight Sky -- I will wait to say anything about it until I see the ending -- and the first three episodes of Sanditon, which so far I'm liking better than Bridgerton though I know everyone hated the ending. I wanted a reminder of happy days for my last set of photos for the year, so these go all the way back to Brookside Gardens in February when the greenhouse was open and spring was encouraged to come early: