Charles E. Burchfield (1893-1967)

Charles E. Burchfield, Journals, May 21, 1945, 15-16:

The full beauty of the dandelion is lost to the majority of people because of its infinite numbers. They like rarity and bow down before some obscure orchid because it may happen to be rare. God's greatest gift to me, is the ability to be astonished anew each year by the almost incredible beauty of a dandelion plant in full bloom. Surely no other plan is so full of the glory of God, and His creation. Seen singly, or in myriad numbers, it is beyond our comprehension. It is as difficult to take in all the glory of the dandelion, as it is to take in a mountain, or a thunderstorm.

Walt Whitman, THE FIRST DANDELION, Leaves of Grass:

Simple and fresh and fair from winter’s close emerging,

As if no artifice of fashion, business, politics, had ever been,

Forth from its sunny nook of shelter’d grass—innocent, golden, calm as the dawn,

The spring’s first dandelion shows its trustful face.