To a Windflower
Teach me the secret of thy loveliness,That, being made wise, I may aspire to beAs beautiful in thought, and so expressImmortal truths to Earth's mortality;Though to my soul ability be lessThan 'tis to thee, O sweet anemone.
Teach me the secret of thy innocence,That in simplicity I may grow wise;Asking of Art no other recompenseThan the approval of her own just eyes;So may I rise to some fair eminence,Though less than thine, O cousin of the skies.
Teach me these things; through whose high knowledge, I,--When Death hath poured oblivion through my veins,And brought me home, as all are brought, to lieIn that vast house, common to serfs and thanes,--I shall not die, I shall not utterly die,For beauty born of beauty--that remains.
Words in this poem
- loveliness n.
- The state or quality of being lovely. [From Lovely.]
- aspire v. t.
- To aspire to; to long for; to try to reach; to mount to.
- mortality n.
- The condition or quality of being mortal; subjection to death or to the necessity of dying. [L. mortalitas: cf. F. mortalité.]
- oblivion n.
- The act of forgetting, or the state of being forgotten; cessation of remembrance; forgetfulness. [L. oblivio, akin to oblivisci to forget: cf. OF. oblivion.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To a Windflower is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #7796; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Madison Julius Cawein, To a Windflower, in Poems (1911), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7796, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/cawein-poems/to-a-windflower.html, id L10890.
Form and metre
To a Windflower is 18 lines in 3 stanzas of 6 lines each. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 80%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.6 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 28% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 A-A-A- lovelinessA · be · expressA · mortality · lessA · anemone
- 2 ABABAB innocenceA · wiseB · recompenseA · eyesB · eminenceA · skiesB
- 3 ABA-AB iA · veinsB · lieA · thanes · dieA · remainsB
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Teach me the secret of thy loveliness, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘˘ |
| That, being made wise, I may aspire to be | 10 | ·/····˘/·· |
| As beautiful in thought, and so express | 10 | ·/˘˘····˘/ |
| Immortal truths to Earth's mortality; | 10 | ˘/˘···˘/˘˘ |
| Though to my soul ability be less | 10 | ····˘/˘˘·· |
| Than 'tis to thee, O sweet anemone. | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Teach me the secret of thy innocence, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘˘ |
| That in simplicity I may grow wise; | 10 | ··˘/˘˘···· |
| Asking of Art no other recompense | 10 | /˘···/˘/˘· |
| Than the approval of her own just eyes; | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| So may I rise to some fair eminence, | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| Though less than thine, O cousin of the skies. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Teach me these things; through whose high knowledge, I,-- | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| When Death hath poured oblivion through my veins, | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| And brought me home, as all are brought, to lie | 10 | ·········· |
| In that vast house, common to serfs and thanes,-- | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| I shall not die, I shall not utterly die, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| For beauty born of beauty--that remains. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.