Flower of Love
The perfume of your body dulls my sense.I want nor wine nor weed; your breath aloneSuffices. In this moment rare and tenseI worship at your breast. The flower is blown,The saffron petals tempt my amorous mouth,The yellow heart is radiant now with dewSoft-scented, redolent of my loved South;O flower of love! I give myself to you.Uncovered on your couch of figured green,Here let us linger indivisible.The portals of your sanctuary unseenReceive my offering, yielding unto me.Oh, with our love the night is warm and deep!The air is sweet, my flower, and sweet the fluteWhose music lulls our burning brain to sleep,While we lie loving, passionate and mute.
Words in this poem
- redolent a.
- Diffusing odor or fragrance; spreading sweet scent; scented; odorous; smelling; -- usually followed by of. [L. redolens, -entis, p. pr. of redolere to emit a scent, diffuse an odor; pref. red-, re-, re- + olere to emit a smell. See Odor.]
- unseen a.
- Not seen or discovered.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Flower of Love is in the public domain. This text is taken from Harlem shadows, Project Gutenberg ebook #64989; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Claude McKay, Flower of Love, in Harlem Shadows (1922), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #64989, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/mckay-harlem-shadows/flower-of-love.html, id L01394.
Form and metre
Flower of Love is 16 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 31% 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 ABABCDCDE-E-FGFG senseA · aloneB · tenseA · blownB · mouthC · dewD · southC · youD · greenE · indivisible · unseenE · me · deepF · fluteG · sleepF · muteG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The perfume of your body dulls my sense. | 10 | ·˘/··/˘··· |
| I want nor wine nor weed; your breath alone | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Suffices. In this moment rare and tense | 10 | ˘/˘··/˘··· |
| I worship at your breast. The flower is blown, | 10 | ·/˘····/·· |
| The saffron petals tempt my amorous mouth, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| The yellow heart is radiant now with dew | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Soft-scented, redolent of my loved South; | 10 | ·/˘/˘˘···· |
| O flower of love! I give myself to you. | 10 | ·/·····/·· |
| Uncovered on your couch of figured green, | 10 | ˘/˘····/˘· |
| Here let us linger indivisible. | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘˘ |
| The portals of your sanctuary unseen | 11 | ·/˘··/˘·˘˘/ |
| Receive my offering, yielding unto me. | 10 | ˘/·/˘/˘··· |
| Oh, with our love the night is warm and deep! | 10 | ··/······· |
| The air is sweet, my flower, and sweet the flute | 10 | ·····/···· |
| Whose music lulls our burning brain to sleep, | 10 | ·/˘·//˘··· |
| While we lie loving, passionate and mute. | 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.