Meadow-Sweet & Moonlight: Charles Mackay’s Woodland Grace
This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast:
April 27, 1814
On this day, Scottish poet and songwriter Charles MacKay was born.
He was a friend to wildflowers and the quiet lanes where they keep their counsel.
In The Collected Songs of Charles Mackay, he singled out Meadow-sweet, the airy “woodland fairy” so often overlooked beside showier blooms.
Gardeners know this affection: the way a modest plant tucks itself into memory and refuses to leave.
Rose! We love thee for thy splendor,
Lily! For thy queenly grace!
Violet! For thy lowly merit,
Peeping from thy shady place!But mine airy, woodland fairy,
Scattering odors at thy feet,
No one knows thy modest beauty,
No one loves thee, Meadow-Sweet!
Mackay’s lines feel like a gardener’s aside at dusk: praise for the unassuming, the faithful, the bloom that scents the path home.
