---
title: 'A poem for May Day by Boyd McCullough'
type: post
author: 'R. Andrew Myers'
date: 2020-05-01
url: https://confessional.org/blog/2020-a-poem-for-may-day-by-boyd-mccullough
---

# A poem for May Day by Boyd McCullough

To celebrate the first day of May, we present a poem from Irish-American Reformed / United Presbyterian minister [Boyd McCullough’s](/authors/boyd-mccullough) autobiography *The Experience of Seventy Years* (1895). The book is not yet on Log College Press, but it is a fascinating read and filled with his poetic verse. The following seems to be a tribute perhaps to the fragrant Trailing Arbutus (Epigaea repens), a flower of delicate beauty.

**To a Wild Flower**

Mrs. Margaret Cameron, of Bloomington Ferry, received anonymously a wild flower of rare beauty. She suspected that it came from her sister in Wisconsin. She pressed it and put it in her album and she desired a few verses to put in with it.

> Little flower of beauty rare,
> From Wisconsin’s woods you came,
> With perfume you graced the air.
> Trailing Love’s your pretty name.
> 
> In the merry month of May
> To my door your way you found,
> When the singing birds are gay,
> ’Mong the trees with blossoms crowned.
> 
> Not a word had you to say;
> Not a message have you brought;
> Yet a sister far away
> Came at once into my thought.
> 
> Wildwoods are your chosen spot,
> In the garden bed you die;
> Thus true love, which glads the cot,
> From the lordly dome will fly.
> 
> When to dust you shall depart,
> As from dust your sprung.
> Your remembrance in my heart,
> Like a picture shall be hung.
> 
> Wedded bliss was once my share,
> Soon my sky was overcast.
> Still my heart retains with care,
> Memories of the happy past.
> 
> Heaven has lent this precious boon
> To the patient, trusting mind;
> Earthly glories, fading soon,
> Leave a sweet perfumer behind.