Heart Flowers
When the flowers are mourningAutumn's misty weather,Whose cold blasts returning,Sweeps them o'er the heather.
As the hair is riven,When old age is sorest;As the leaves are drivenFrom the unmantled forest.
Everywhere existenceSeems by darkness shaded;Clouds invade the distance—All by clouds invaded.
Yet, my living spiritHas from love's own far-landGathered—and I wear it—An undying garland.
What care I for sorrow,It shall perish never—Careless of the morrow,It is green for ever.
Words in this poem
- undying a.
- Not dying; imperishable; unending; immortal; as, the undying souls of men.
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Heart Flowers is in the public domain. This text is taken from Translations from Alexander Petofi, the Magyar Poet, by Sir John Bowring (London: Trübner & Co., 1866), Internet Archive, the John Bowring translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Sándor Petőfi, Heart Flowers, in Translations from Alexander Petofi, the Magyar Poet (1866), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petofi-poems-bowring/heart-flowers.html, id L29828.
Form and metre
Heart Flowers is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is trochaic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%).
See other poems in trochaic trimeter.
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 mourningA · weatherB · returningA · heatherB
- 2 ABAB rivenA · sorestB · drivenA · forestB
- 3 ABAB existenceA · shadedB · distanceA · invadedB
- 4 ABAB spiritA · landB · itA · garlandB
- 5 ABAB sorrowA · neverB · morrowA · everB
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 trochaic trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| When the flowers are mourning | 7 | ··/˘·/˘ |
| Autumn's misty weather, | 6 | /˘/˘/˘ |
| Whose cold blasts returning, | 6 | ···˘/˘ |
| Sweeps them o'er the heather. | 6 | ····/˘ |
| As the hair is riven, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| When old age is sorest; | 6 | ······ |
| As the leaves are driven | 6 | ····/˘ |
| From the unmantled forest. | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Everywhere existence | 6 | /˘·˘/˘ |
| Seems by darkness shaded; | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| Clouds invade the distance— | 6 | ·˘/·/˘ |
| All by clouds invaded. | 6 | ···˘/˘ |
| Yet, my living spirit | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| Has from love's own far-land | 6 | ······ |
| Gathered—and I wear it— | 6 | /˘···· |
| An undying garland. | 6 | ·˘/˘/˘ |
| What care I for sorrow, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| It shall perish never— | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| Careless of the morrow, | 6 | /˘··/˘ |
| It is green for ever. | 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.