"A Runaway" by Alice E. Allen

I know a little flower
Who runs away
Sunday or Monday or
Most any day.
She lives outside your yard--
Thought you think you're on your guard,
She'll come in and bring her pard,
And there they'll stay.

She chooses for her steed
Each wind that blows,
Here, there, and everywhere,
Her bright face shows.
She travels up and down,
Stars a village or a town,
Matters not how folks may frown,
On, on she goes.

She wears a gown of green,
So scant and straight,
She has the curliest
Warm-yellow pate.
Althought I love her so,
Father says she's got to go,
Else no pretty grass will grow,
As sure as fate!

You know this little flower--
This pal of mine?
When she gets old, her hair
Grows white and fine,
But whether gold or gray,
Though she's such a runaway,
Children lover her -- aye, for aye,
Dear Dandelion!


Alice E. Allen
Primary Education, Volume 28

"Dandelion" by Evaleen Stein

Hey-a-day-a-day, my dear! Dandelion time!
Come, and let us make for them a pretty little rhyme!
See the meadows twinkling now, beautiful and bright
As the sky when through the blue, shine the stars at night!
Once upon a time, folks say, mighty kings of old
Met upon a splendid field called “The Cloth of Gold.”
But, we wonder, could it be there was ever seen
Brighter gold than glitters now in our meadows green?
Dandelions, dandelions, shining through the dew,
Let the kings have Cloth of Gold, but let us have you!

by Evaleen Stein (1863-1923)