Grecian lad

Look not in my eyes, for fear
Thy mirror true the sight I see,
And there you find your face too clear
And love it and be lost like me.
One the long nights through must lie
Spent in star-defeated sighs,
But why should you as well as I
Perish? gaze not in my eyes.

A Grecian lad, as I hear tell,
One that many loved in vain,
Looked into a forest well
And never looked away again.
There, when the turf in springtime flowers,
With downward eye and gazes sad,
Stands amid the glancing showers
A jonquil, not a Grecian lad.
AE Housman


The daffs have finished in the garden and the bluebells are now up, but today's blip is a teeny narcissus - the only one in the garden! It smells impressive too. Narcissus was of course the handsome but doomed young man who fell in love with his own watery reflection, not realising it was himself and was unable to tear himself away and starved to death!. This was punishment by Nemesis for his having been so mean to countless others who fell in love with his beauty including poor Echo who was heartlessly spurned. Narcissus was eventually turned into a flower so he could remain at the edge of a stream forever.
Seamus Heaney was made of much more practical stuff and harrumphed:
To stare, big-eyed Narcissus, into some spring
Is beneath all adult dignity

Thanks to BikerBear  for hosting FlowerFriday.