A LITTLE MINISTER, a poem

FAR up the crag, 'twixt sea and sky,
Where winds tempestuous, blowing by,
     Leave giant boulders swept and bare:
     Where frequent lightnings fitful flare,
And petrels sound their stormy cry,—

I found a bluebell, sweet and shy,
Lifting its head complacently,
     As guarded by the tenderest care—
          Far up the crag.

And often now, when fear draws nigh,
In thought I stand 'twixt sea and sky,
     And as of old, in my despair,
     I bless the Power that set it there—
That tiny thing with courage high,
          Far up the crag!

"A Little Minister" by Florence Earle Coates. Published in The Outlook (14 February 1903), Mine and Thine (1904) and Poems (1916) Volume I.