Артур Стэнли Бурино (Arthur Stanley Bourinot)

Jack in the Pulpit

Trilliums and Spring Beauty are wildflowers.
Jack in the Pulpit is the gloomiest old lad
He stands in the forest aisles looking very sad
And preaches to the Violets and little Trilliums
The Spring Beauty blanches and trembles when he comes:

All the little flowers stand quaking in their shoes
For just the very sight of him gives them woolly woos
His dress is staid and proper, hooded is his cap
And hanging from his shoulders droops a long striped wrap.
He's a melancholy man, this Hermit of the Wood
The sermons that he murmurs are never understood
And when the flowers hear him they close their eyes and pray
He'll soon leave the pulpit and let them go and play.