Double Red Daisies
Double red daisies, they're my flowers,Which nobody else may grow.In a big quarrelsome house like oursThey try it sometimes--but no,I root them up because they're my flowers,Which nobody else may grow.
Claire has a tea-rose, but she didn't plant it;Ben has an iris, but I don't want it.Daisies, double red daisies for me,The beautifulest flowers in the garden.
Double red daisy, that's my mark:I paint it in all my books!It's carved high up on the beech-tree bark,How neat and lovely it looks!So don't forget that it's my trade mark;Don't copy it in your books.
Claire has a tea-rose, but she didn't plant it;Ben has an iris, but I don't want it.Daisies, double red daisies for me,The beautifulest flowers in the garden.
Words in this poem
- nobody n.
- No person; no one; not anybody. [No, a. + body.]
- claire n.
- A small inclosed pond used for gathering and greening oysters.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Double Red Daisies is in the public domain. This text is taken from Fairies and Fusiliers, Project Gutenberg ebook #10122; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Robert Graves, Double Red Daisies, in Fairies and Fusiliers (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10122, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/graves-fairies/double-red-daisies.html, id L02434.
Form and metre
Double Red Daisies is 20 lines in 4 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is ABABAB, complete in 2 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 78%). 89% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.6 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 5% 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 ABABAB flowersA · growB · oursA · noB · flowersA · growB
- 2 AA-- itA · itA · me · garden
- 3 ABABAB markA · booksB · barkA · looksB · markA · booksB
- 4 AA-- itA · itA · me · garden
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Double red daisies, they're my flowers, | 9 | /˘·/˘··/˘ |
| Which nobody else may grow. | 7 | ·/····· |
| In a big quarrelsome house like ours | 8 | ···/˘··/ |
| They try it sometimes--but no, | 7 | ···˘/·· |
| I root them up because they're my flowers, | 9 | ········/ |
| Which nobody else may grow. | 7 | ·/····· |
| Claire has a tea-rose, but she didn't plant it; | 11 | ·······/˘·· |
| Ben has an iris, but I don't want it. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Daisies, double red daisies for me, | 9 | /˘/˘·/˘·· |
| The beautifulest flowers in the garden. | 9 | ·/˘˘/··/˘ |
| Double red daisy, that's my mark: | 8 | /˘·/˘··· |
| I paint it in all my books! | 7 | ······· |
| It's carved high up on the beech-tree bark, | 9 | ········· |
| How neat and lovely it looks! | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| So don't forget that it's my trade mark; | 9 | ··˘/····· |
| Don't copy it in your books. | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Claire has a tea-rose, but she didn't plant it; | 11 | ·······/˘·· |
| Ben has an iris, but I don't want it. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Daisies, double red daisies for me, | 9 | /˘/˘·/˘·· |
| The beautifulest flowers in the garden. | 9 | ·/˘˘/··/˘ |
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.