The Flowers
Day after day,At spring's return,I watch my flowers, how they burnTheir lives away.
The candle crocusAnd daffodil goldDrink fire of the sunshine--Quickly cold.
And the proud tulip--How red he glows!--Is quenched ere summerCan kindle the rose.
Purple as the innermostCore of a sinking flame,Deep in the leaves the violets smoulderTo the dust whence they came.
Day after dayAt spring's return,I watch my flowers, how they burnTheir lives away,Day after day ...
Words in this poem
- sunshine n.
- The light of the sun, or the place where it shines; the direct rays of the sun, the place where they fall, or the warmth and light which they give.
- tulip n.
- Any plant of the liliaceous genus Tulipa. Many varieties are cultivated for their beautiful, often variegated flowers. Tulip tree. [F. tulipe, OF. also tulipan, It. tulipano, tulipa, from Turk. tulbend, dulbend, literally, a turban, Per. dulband; -- so called from the resemblance of the form]
- smoulder v. t.
- To smother; to suffocate; to choke. Holinshed.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Flowers is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Defeat of Youth, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #24364; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Aldous Huxley, The Flowers, in The Defeat of Youth, and Other Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #24364, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/huxley-defeat-of-youth/the-flowers.html, id L22011.
Form and metre
The Flowers is 21 lines in 5 stanzas. The metre is iambic dimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
See other poems in iambic dimeter.
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 ABBA dayA · returnB · burnB · awayA
- 2 -A-A crocus · goldA · sunshine · coldA
- 3 -A-A tulip · glowsA · summer · roseA
- 4 -A-A innermost · flameA · smoulder · cameA
- 5 ABBAA dayA · returnB · burnB · awayA · dayA
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 dimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Day after day, | 4 | ···· |
| At spring's return, | 4 | ··˘/ |
| I watch my flowers, how they burn | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Their lives away. | 4 | ··˘/ |
| The candle crocus | 5 | ·/˘/˘ |
| And daffodil gold | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| Drink fire of the sunshine-- | 7 | ·/˘··/· |
| Quickly cold. | 3 | /˘· |
| And the proud tulip-- | 5 | ···/˘ |
| How red he glows!-- | 4 | ···· |
| Is quenched ere summer | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Can kindle the rose. | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| Purple as the innermost | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Core of a sinking flame, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Deep in the leaves the violets smoulder | 10 | ·····/˘˘/˘ |
| To the dust whence they came. | 6 | ······ |
| Day after day | 4 | ···· |
| At spring's return, | 4 | ··˘/ |
| I watch my flowers, how they burn | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Their lives away, | 4 | ··˘/ |
| Day after day ... | 4 | ···· |
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.