Common Ladyfern

Common Ladyfern
Athyrium filix-femina

The Ladyfern is a very poetic plant.

THE LADY FERN

Edwin Lees

    When in splendour and beauty all nature is crown'd,
    The Fern is seen curling half hid on the ground,
    But of all the green Brackens that rise in the burn,
    Commend me alone to the sweet Lady -Fern.

    Polypodium, indented, stands stiff on the rock,
    With his sort expos'd to the tempest's rough shock ;
    On the wide chilly heath Aquilina stands stern,
    Not once to be nam'd with the sweet Lady-Fern.

    Filix-mas, in a circle, lifts up his green fronds,
    And the Heath-Fern delights by the bogs and the ponds ;
    Through their shadowy tufts though with pleasure I turn,
    The palm must still rest with the fair Lady-Fern.

    By the fountain I see her just sprung into sight,
    Her texture as frail as though shivering with fright,
    To the water she shrinks, I can scarcely discern
    In the deep humid shadows the soft Lady-Fern.

    Where the water is pouring for ever she sits,
    And beside her the Ouzel and Kingfisher flits,
    There, supreme in her beauty, beside the full urn,
    In the shade of the rocks stands the tall Lady-Fern.

    If sweeter the Maiden-Hair* scents to the gale,
    If taller King Osmund's^ crown'd glories prevail,
    Though darker Sea-Spleenwort well pleas'd I return
    To the thicket that shelters the fair Lady-Fern.

    Her delicate pinnse there droop in the shade
    By whispering Aspens and Wood-vetches made ;
    In the pattering ravine there stands one grey Hern
    Embower'd in the fronds of the tall Lady-Fern.

    Noon burns up the mountain but here by the fall
    The Lady-Fern nourishes graceful and tall ;
    Hours speed as thoughts rise without any concern,
    And float like the spray gliding past the green Fern.

* Asplenium trichomanes. ^ Flowering Fern (Osmunda regalis).

Hie Away

by Sir Walter Scott

Hie away, hie away!
Over bank and over brae,
Where the copsewood is the greenest,
Where the fountains glisten sheenest,
Where the lady fern grows strongest,
Where the morning dew lies longest,
Where the black-cock sweetest sips it,
Where the fairy latest trips it:
Hie to haunts right seldom seen,
Lovely, lonesome, cool, and green;
Over bank and over brae,
Hie away, hie away!