Flowers on the Bank
Flowers on the bank,—we pass and call them gay:The primroses throw pictures to the mind,The buttercups lag dazzlingly behind,And daisy-friends we spy but do not sayA word of joy;—thoughts of them follow not,And soon are they forgot.
What care we for wildflowers except their name?Bright maidens at the sight in rapture start,Which, as our smiles say, comes not from the heart:Flowers dance not, sing not, all their ways are tame;They love not, neither love in us inspire;Nor blush when we admire.
Yet stay, the fingers of that panting childHave culled for us the choice ones,—many a gem,—Have set their lovely colours stem to stemIn her fond hands they are not tame or wild,Nestled in fringy fern so changed appearsThe little gift she bears!
She gives herself, and she can dance and sing,And she can love inspire and blush at praise;The flowers are part of her, have caught her ways;She gives herself who gives so sweet a thing.And she is gone, with other thoughts than oursGathering fresh love and flowers.
Words in this poem
- dazzlingly adv.
- In a dazzling manner.
- admire v. t.
- To regard with wonder or astonishment; to view with surprise; to marvel at. [F. admirer, fr. L. admirari; ad + mirari to wonder, for smirari, akin to Gr. smi, and E. smile.]
- fringy a.
- Aborned with fringes.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Flowers on the Bank is in the public domain. This text is taken from The poems of Thomas Gordon Hake, Project Gutenberg ebook #78947; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Thomas Gordon Hake, Flowers on the Bank, in Poems (1870), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #78947, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hake-poems/flowers-on-the-bank.html, id L23604.
Form and metre
Flowers on the Bank is 24 lines in 4 stanzas of 6 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABBACC, complete in 3 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
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 ABBACC gayA · mindB · behindB · sayA · notC · forgotC
- 2 ABBACC nameA · startB · heartB · tameA · inspireC · admireC
- 3 ABBA-- childA · gemB · stemB · wildA · appears · bears
- 4 ABBACC singA · praiseB · waysB · thingA · oursC · flowersC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Flowers on the bank,—we pass and call them gay: | 10 | /········· |
| The primroses throw pictures to the mind, | 10 | ·/·˘·/˘··· |
| The buttercups lag dazzlingly behind, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘˘·· |
| And daisy-friends we spy but do not say | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| A word of joy;—thoughts of them follow not, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And soon are they forgot. | 6 | ····˘/ |
| What care we for wildflowers except their name? | 10 | ····/····· |
| Bright maidens at the sight in rapture start, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Which, as our smiles say, comes not from the heart: | 10 | ··/······· |
| Flowers dance not, sing not, all their ways are tame; | 10 | /········· |
| They love not, neither love in us inspire; | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Nor blush when we admire. | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Yet stay, the fingers of that panting child | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Have culled for us the choice ones,—many a gem,— | 10 | ·······/·· |
| Have set their lovely colours stem to stem | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| In her fond hands they are not tame or wild, | 10 | ·········· |
| Nestled in fringy fern so changed appears | 10 | /˘·/˘···˘/ |
| The little gift she bears! | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| She gives herself, and she can dance and sing, | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| And she can love inspire and blush at praise; | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| The flowers are part of her, have caught her ways; | 10 | ·/········ |
| She gives herself who gives so sweet a thing. | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| And she is gone, with other thoughts than ours | 11 | ·····/˘··/˘ |
| Gathering fresh love and flowers. | 8 | /˘˘···/˘ |
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.