BLEAK wintry winds had bared the shivering trees,
And whirled their brown dead leaves to snow-filled graves;
All summer’s treasures locked in secret caves,
I mourning said, and nothing left to please
But winter’s ruthless grasp must sternly seize-
When lo! beneath a sheltered bank there waves,
Sweetly unconscious of the storm it braves,
One crimson-lidded daisy—a heart’s-ease,
Green-leaved at root, and with a double bloom
Of fair twin flow’rets, to the daisy smiled—
Sweet flowers, ye shall no longer brave the wild,
But sheltered safe with me breathe sweet perfume.
So oft doth God to his dear children say,
“Long have you smiled through storms—come, bloom with me alway.”
Julia Perkins Ballard (March 27, 1828 – April 21, 1894) was an author and poet. She was also the wife of a prominent minister and scholar, Rev. Dr. Addison Ballard. She married Ballard on August 7, 1851.
Ballard moved often as she followed her husband from job to job. Her literary works focused on entomology, temperance, nature, and children’s science books. She often used the nom de plume Kruna when writing temperance fiction.
Shelley Ann Vrgleski 