How many Flowers fail in Wood－1
Or perish from the Hill－
Without the privilege to know
That they are Beautiful－
How many cast a nameless Pod 5
Upon the nearest Breeze－
Unconscious of the Scarlet Freight－
It bear to Other Eyes－
Or perish from the Hill－
Without the privilege to know
That they are Beautiful－
How many cast a nameless Pod 5
Upon the nearest Breeze－
Unconscious of the Scarlet Freight－
It bear to Other Eyes－
(F.534/J.404)
[1] Flowers fail:: beautiful children died. Wood:: madness, insane. Hetty left her illigitimate child alone in the woods, and was charged of murder.
[2] Hill:: hill-altar, an altar on the hill.
[5] nameless Pod:: a nameless baby from the womb.
[6] nearest:: the meanest, most stingy. Breeze:: rumor.
[7] Scarlet Freight:: a burden of adultery.
"I saw the prisoner, in a red cloak, sitting under a bit of a haystack not far off the stile. . . . I saw something odd and round and whitish lying on the ground under a nut-bush by the side of me. And I stooped down on hands and knees to pick it up. And I saw it was a little baby's hand." ─ Adam Bede (1859) by George Eliot