Flowers
Welcome, O pure and lovely forms! againUnto the shadowy stillness of my room!For not alone ye bring a joyous trainOf summer-thoughts attendant on your bloom--Visions of freshness, of rich bowery gloom,Of the low murmurs filling mossy dells,Of stars that look down on your folded bellsThrough dewy leaves, of many a wild perfumeGreeting the wanderer of the hill and groveLike sudden music: more than this ye bring--Far more; ye whisper of the all-fostering loveWhich thus hath clothed you, and whose dove-like wingBroods o’er the sufferer drawing fever’d breath,Whether the couch be that of life or death.
Words in this poem
- stillness n.
- The quality or state of being still; quietness; silence; calmness; inactivity.
- bowery a.
- Shading, like a bower; full of bowers.
- sufferer n.
- One who suffers; one who endures or undergoes suffering; one who sustains inconvenience or loss; as, sufferers by poverty or sickness; men are sufferers by fire or by losses at sea.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Flowers is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of Felicia Hemans, Project Gutenberg ebook #66785; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Felicia Hemans, Flowers, in Poems (1808–1835), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66785, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hemans-poems/flowers.html, id L19834.
Form and metre
Flowers is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%).
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 ABABBCCB-D-DEE againA · roomB · trainA · bloomB · gloomB · dellsC · bellsC · perfumeB · grove · bringD · love · wingD · breathE · deathE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Welcome, O pure and lovely forms! again | 10 | /˘···/˘·˘/ |
| Unto the shadowy stillness of my room! | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| For not alone ye bring a joyous train | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| Of summer-thoughts attendant on your bloom-- | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘··· |
| Visions of freshness, of rich bowery gloom, | 10 | /˘·/˘··/˘· |
| Of the low murmurs filling mossy dells, | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘· |
| Of stars that look down on your folded bells | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Through dewy leaves, of many a wild perfume | 10 | ·/˘··/··˘/ |
| Greeting the wanderer of the hill and grove | 10 | /˘·/˘····· |
| Like sudden music: more than this ye bring-- | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Far more; ye whisper of the all-fostering love | 11 | ···/˘···/˘· |
| Which thus hath clothed you, and whose dove-like wing | 10 | ·········· |
| Broods o’er the sufferer drawing fever’d breath, | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘· |
| Whether the couch be that of life or death. | 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.