To Flowers from Italy in Winter
SUNNED in the South, and here to-day;—If all organic thingsBe sentient, Flowers, as some men say,What are your ponderings?
How can you stay, nor vanish quiteFrom this bleak spot of thorn,And birch, and fir, and frozen whiteExpanse of the forlorn?
Frail luckless exiles hither brought!Your dust will not regainOld sunny haunts of Classic thoughtWhen you shall waste and wane;
But mix with alien earth, be litWith frigid Boreal flame,And not a sign remain in itTo tell men whence you came.
Words in this poem
- forlorn a.
- Deserted abandoned; lost. [OE., p.p. of forlesen to lose utterly, AS. forleósan (p.p. forloren); pref. for- + leósan (in comp.) to lose; cf. D. verliezen to lose, G. verlieren, Sw. förlor]
- luckless a.
- Being without luck; unpropitious; unfortunate; unlucky; meeting with ill success or bad fortune; as, a luckless gamester; a luckless maid.
- sunny a.
- Of or pertaining to the sun; proceeding from, or resembling the sun; hence, shining; bright; brilliant; radiant.
- classic a.
- Of or relating to the first class or rank, especially in literature or art. [L. classicus relating to the classes of the Roman people, and especially to the frist class; hence, of the first rank, superior, from classis class: cf. F. clas]
- 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,]
- boreal a.
- Northern; pertaining to the north, or to the north wind; as, a boreal bird; a boreal blast. [L. borealis: cf. F. boréal. See Boreas.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To Flowers from Italy in Winter is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems of the Past and the Present, Project Gutenberg ebook #3168; 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 Hardy, To Flowers from Italy in Winter, in Poems of the Past and the Present (1901), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3168, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hardy-past-and-present/to-flowers-from-italy-in-winter.html, id L16886.
Form and metre
To Flowers from Italy in Winter is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.1 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 44% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in common measure.
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 ABAB dayA · thingsB · sayA · ponderingsB
- 2 ABAB quiteA · thornB · whiteA · forlornB
- 3 ABAB broughtA · regainB · thoughtA · waneB
- 4 ABAB litA · flameB · itA · cameB
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| SUNNED in the South, and here to-day; | 8 | ········ |
| —If all organic things | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| Be sentient, Flowers, as some men say, | 9 | ·/˘˘/···· |
| What are your ponderings? | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| How can you stay, nor vanish quite | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| From this bleak spot of thorn, | 6 | ······ |
| And birch, and fir, and frozen white | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Expanse of the forlorn? | 6 | ˘/··˘/ |
| Frail luckless exiles hither brought! | 8 | ·/˘/·/˘· |
| Your dust will not regain | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Old sunny haunts of Classic thought | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| When you shall waste and wane; | 6 | ······ |
| But mix with alien earth, be lit | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| With frigid Boreal flame, | 7 | ·/˘/˘˘· |
| And not a sign remain in it | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| To tell men whence you came. | 6 | ······ |
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.