I have a great fondness for sunflowers. I've started my own garden where I have grown four sunflowers all from seed. They are not so tall, and I have much to learn before they can reach their full potential. Seeing how much I adore sunflowers I simply had to read the poem I stumbled upon by William Blake called Ah! Sunflowers (I wasn't allowed an exclamation point in the title. Pout.).
The poem is only eight lines long--not much for a sunflower's grandness. However, the span that is in the poem makes up for the stubbiness of the poem itself. This small poem is about the life span of a sunflower. Or rather, it seems to be about the end of its life.
I think that this poem must have been written after Blake saw a sunflower in late September when sunflowers are waning and they do seem "weary of time". And then it says that sunflowers are wishing for youth and innocence as they lean towards an unseen entity. At the end of their life, similar to humans, they harken back to "the good old days" of "youth" and "pale virgin(s)".
Favorite line: "Ah! sunflower.../Seeking after that sweet golden clime"
Monday, October 5, 2009
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You're favorite flower, but Blake seems to think it's a sad one. I don't. "Margaret, are you grieving / over goldensomething unleaving", Gerard Manley Hopkins, is my favorite flower poem, plus there's one by Stanley Kunitz from the point of view of a cut flower that's terrific too. Goldenrod? Goldengrove?
ReplyDeleteThe Kunitz one sounds really neat. Do you have a link?
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