Analysis of The Flower.
Robert Crawford 1959 (Bellshill)
I.
The flower in its own scent breathes till it dies
As if the scent its very birth-breath were
(As love is life's) which, while it occupies
Like a mesmeric light the living air,
Feeds every portion of the tender hue
In which it manifests so subtly fair
The faery form, which as in a dream grew
Out of the dark earth with ethereal power
Quickening its limbs, as those of a babe who
Draws from its mother's life a vital dower
Of warmth and beauty, thrilling breast and brain
Till it too comes to birth — a perfect flower
With its own aura, like a subtle strain
Which must vibrate to every joy and pain.
II.
The seeing eye and hearing ear are fed
With nature's nurture, and the mind imbues
Earth and all things within it, even the dead,
With its own sap that with thought's mystic hues
Bourgeons in every waking hour, and e'en
When sleep does all the inner life transfuse
With its own radiance, and the unseen
Becomes a part of us too, as we were
Back in some other sphere where we had been
Before the new thought breathed in the old air,
And the new body budded into birth,
Making us all that we are now who bear
The signs in us of all the woe and mirth
That came and has gone on with man on earth.
III.
Far back in the unstoried past, whose rune
No sage has ciphered and no bard has sung,
In the beginning of the sun and moon
When e'en the oldest hill was very young —
Ah! then perchance the seed that was us first
Took root in th' mystic soil whence we have (Unclear
Under the very hand of God, and burst
Into the secret being it has had,
All through the enchanted aeons strangely nursed
From death to life between the good and bad;
E'en as it were a spirit-germ that grew
By some mysterious process, and was clad
E'en like the flowers with varying form and hue,
Till it ends in what all may end in too!
Scheme | ABCBDEDECEFGCGGAHBHIJIKCLDMDMMANONOPQPRPREREE |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (22%) |
Metre | 1 01001111111 1101110110 111111110 10110101 11001010101 0111011001 011110011 110111010010 10011111011 1111010101 1101010101 11111100110 1111010101 11101100101 1 0101010111 110100011 10110111001 1111111101 101001010011 1111010101 1111000001 0101111110 1011011111 0101110011 001101011 1011111111 0101110101 1101111111 1 11001111 111101111 0001010101 11101011101 1101011111 1101110111101 1001011101 0101010111 1100101101 1111010101 11110010111 1101001011 1110101100101 1110111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,772 |
Words | 356 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 45 |
Lines Amount | 45 |
Letters per line (avg) | 31 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 1,407 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 354 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:49 min read
- 117 Views
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"The Flower." Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/30768/the-flower.>.
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