The Language of Flowers: Poems

CONTENTS Forewordfrom The Homeric Hymn to Demeter SPRINGEmily Dickinson, 'The feet of people walking home' Pir Sultan Abdul, 'I asked the yellow crocuses'D. H. Lawrence, Italian Crocuses Sappho, '… frankly, I wish that I were dead' Robert Herrick, How Violets Came BlueJohn Clare, To the VioletAlice Oswald, VioletHenry Hawkins, from 'The Virgin': The VioletLorenzo de' Medici, Sonnet XCIV: 'O lovely violet'William Wordsworth, Song: 'She dwelt among the untrodden ways'Edward Thomas, CelandineWilliam Wordsworth, To the Small CelandineOvid, from Metamorphoses: Venus's Lament for Adonis Ibn al-Zaqqaq, AnemonesRainer Maria Rilke, from Sonnets to Orpheus  William Shakespeare, from The Winter's Tale: Proserpina's Flowers Robert Herrick, To Primroses Filled with Morning DewJohn Clare, The Primrose BankAdelaide Crapsey, Blue Hyacinths  Ovid, from Metamorphoses: The Death of HyacinthusCharles Tomlinson, The Metamorphosis Ben Jonson, Echo's SongA. E. Housman, 'Look not in my eyes, for fear'Abdallah Ibn Mu'tazz, 'Looking, the narcissus, looking'al-Sanawbari, Eyes of NarcissiWilliam Wordsworth, 'I wandered lonely as a cloud'U. A. Fanthorpe, Daffodil MinistryRobert Herrick, To DaffodilsHafez, from the Divan of Hafez Emily Dickinson, 'Some rainbow coming from the fair'Necati, Ghazal: 'What have those tulip-cheeks not done' James Fenton, Yellow TulipsE. J. Scovell, Deaths of Flowers Issa, 'Irises – 'Anthony Hecht, Look DeepWilliam Carlos Williams, IrisWilliam Morris, The Gillyflower of Gold Kim Sowol, AzaleasIssa, 'the little shrine'Richard Wilbur, SignaturesCharlotte Smith, Sonnet LX: To an Amiable Girl Mimi Khalvati, Ghazal: Lilies of the ValleyEdmund Spenser, The Merry Month of May Walter de la Mare, 'The Hawthorn Hath a Deathly Smell'Christina Rossetti, A Bed of Forget-Me-NotsJohn Clare, The CowslipsIbn Sa'id, The Virgin A. E. Housman, 'Oh see how thick the goldcup flowers'James Russell Lowell, To the DandelionRoy Marshall, DandytimeJames Hurdis, from The Village Curate  Geoffrey Chaucer, The Daisy Christina Rossetti, 'Where innocent bright-eyed daisies are'William Wordsworth, To the DaisyEmily Dickinson, 'So has a daisy vanished'Jon Silkin, A Daisy Ibn Billita, MargueriteLouise Glück, Mock OrangeRené Rapin, Peony Wang Wei, Red PeoniesBuson, 'Sadness at twilight …'Emperor Yang, Peonies at Jixing Temple LILIES AND ROSESIbn Darraj al-Qastalli, LiliesAlfred, Lord Tennyson, from Balin and BalanDante Gabriel Rossetti, Mary's GirlhoodWilliam Blake, The LillyRobert Herrick, The Lily in a CrystalThe New Testament, from Matthew 6Edmund Spenser. Song of the Enchantress Louise Glück, The Silver LilyOscar Wilde, RequiescatEmily Dickinson, 'Through the dark sod'Ruth Pitter, Lilies and WineAchilles Tatius, Leucippe's SongKis'ai, 'The rose'Rumi, RoseRainer Maria Rilke, from The RosesAnonymous, 'There is no rose'Ausonius, On Newblown RosesEdmund Waller, 'Go, lovely Rose'Anonymous, On a Rosebud Sent to her LoverRobert Herrick, Upon RosesHafez, The Nightingale and the RoseJ. W. von Goethe, Rosebud in the HeatherWilliam Blake, The Sick RoseSor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Sonnet CXLVII: In which she morally censures a rose, and thereby all that resemble itJosé Marti, A White Rose William Blake, My Pretty Rose TreeE. Nesbit, Among His Books Marianne Moore, Injudicious GardeningRuth Pitter, from Gardeners AllDorothy Parker, Rondeau Théophile Gautier, The Tea-RoseH. D., Sea RoseW. B. Yeats, The Rose Upon the Rood of TimeAngelus Silesius, 'The rose is without why' SUMMEREdmund Spenser, Sonnet LXIV:'Comming to kiss her lips'Amy Lowell, Madonna of the Evening  FlowersAlgernon Swinburne, Love in a MistBoris Pasternak, Night VioletWalter de la Mare, Noon and Night FlowerDorothy Parker, The Evening PrimroseTed Hughes, Sunstruck FoxgloveDenise Levertov, In Praise of AlliumGilles Durant, Le SoulcyAnonymous, Kangra Folk SongVicki Fever, MarigoldsSeamus Heaney, LupinsAlice Oswald, ThriftEmily Dickinson, 'I was the slightest in the house' Robert Browning, Evelyn Hope Robert Herrick, How Pansies or Heart's-Ease Came FirstAlgernon Swinburne, A Flower-Piece by FantinChristina Rossetti, 'Heartsease in my garden bed'Dante Gabriel Rossetti, The HoneysucklePhilip Freneau, The Wild HoneysuckleAlfred, Lord Tennyson, from The Princess: 'Now sleeps the crimson petal' Frances Sargent Osgood, The Lily's Delusion Ryokan, The LotusHuang E, To the Tune of 'Soaring Clouds'Heinrich Heine, Lotus BlossomSarojini Naidu, The LotusSally Wen Mao, Mad Honey Soliloquy Horace, Odes I, 38 Mary Elizabeth Coleridge, Jealousy H. D., Leda William Cowper, The Poet, the Oyster, and Sensitive PlantJon Silkin, HarebellWilliam Carlos Williams, Queen-Ann's-LaceVayilanrevan, What She Said Rabindranath Tagore, The First JasminesGiovanni Pascoli, Night-Blooming JasmineVictor Hugo, My Two Daughters William Shakespeare, from The Winter's Tale: Flowers of Middle SummerPeter Phillips, Red CarnationsOvid, from Metamorphoses: Opium Poppies J. W. von Goethe, A Thing of BeautyJohn Addington Symonds, Love in DreamsW. S. Gilbert, The AestheteIsaac Rosenberg, Break of Day in the TrenchesMary Oliver, Poppies  AUTUMNWilliam Blake, 'Ah! sunflower'Kao Chi', SunflowerChang Yu, Yellow Sunflower of SzechwanEugenio Montale, The SunflowerJohn Clare, The RagwortAnne Stevenson, RagwortGuillaume Apollinaire, Autumn CrocusesAmy Lowell, Autumn Paul Verlaine, A DahliaAmy Clampitt, The Smaller OrchidRyokan, 'I descended to the valley to gather orchids'Theodore Roethke, CarnationsH. D., Sheltered GardenEmily Bronte, High Waving HeatherD. H. Lawrence, Bavarian GentiansWilliam Cullen Bryant, To the Fringed GentianEmily Dickinson, 'There is a flower that bees prefer' Basil Bunting, 'Three Michaelmas daisies'Sara Teasdale, Wild AstersAmy Clampitt, The Field PansySylvia Plath, Poppies in OctoberD. H. Lawrence, Sicilian CyclamensPo Chu-i, Chrysanthemums in the Eastern GardenRainer Maria Rilke, Crowned with DreamsRyota, 'They spoke no word' WINTERJohn Eppel, Star of BethlehemMedbh McGuckian, Orchid HouseSara Teasdale, In a Cuban GardenRosalía de Castro, DaisyEmily Brontë, 'The blue bell is the sweetest flower'Marianne Moore, RosemaryKing Henry VIII, 'Green groweth the holly, so doth the ivy'Charles Lassailly, The CamelliaMichael Field, CyclamensBasho, Two haikuMary Robinson, Ode to the Snow-dropTed Hughes, SnowdropChristina Rossetti, Endure Hardness Charles Tomlinson, The Order of Saying Carol Ann Duffy, Demeter THE LANGUAGE OF FLOWERSLeigh Hunt, Love-Letters Made of FlowersThomas Bayly Haynes, The MyrtleW. M. Praed, Letter of AdviceRobert Burns, The PoesieElizabeth Barrett Browning, from Sonnets from the Portuguese: Belovèd, thou hast brought me many flowers'A. Mary F. Robinson, A DialogueChristina Rossetti, 'A rose has thorns as well as honey'Stéphane Mallarmé, The FlowersChristina Rossetti, Consider the Lilies of the FieldPercy Bysshe Shelley, The QuestionBrenda Shaughnessy, Red Tulips, Then AsphodelAlfred, Lord Tennyson, Moral from The Day-dream