Analysis of On The Purple And White Carnation
Caroline Elizabeth Sarah Norton 1808 (Caroline Elizabeth Sarah Sheridan London) – 1877 (London)
'TWAS a bright May morn, and each opening flower
Lay sunning itself in Flora's bower;
Young Love, who was fluttering round, espied
The blossoms so gay in their painted pride;
And he gazed on the point of a feathered dart,
For mischief had filled the boy-god's heart;
And laughed as his bowstring of silk he drew,
And away that arrow at random flew:
Onward it sped like a ray of light,
And fell on a flower of virgin white,
Which glanced all snowy and pure at the sun,
And wept when his glorious course was run:
Two little drops on its pale leaves lay
Pure as pearls, but with diamond ray,
(Like the tear on Beauty's lid of snow,
Which waits but Compassion to bid it flow
It rested, that dart; and its pointed tip
Sank deep where the bees were wont to sip;
And the sickening flower gazed with grief
On the purple stains which dimmed each leaf,
And the crystal drops on its leaves that stood
Blushed with sorrow and shame till they turned to blood.
It chanced that Flora, wandering by,
Beheld her flow'ret droop and die;
And Love laughed in scorn at the flower-queen's woe,
As she vainly shook its leaves of snow.
Fled from her lip was the smile of light :--
'Oh! who hath worked thee this fell despite!
Thou who did'st harm, alas! to none,
But joyed'st all day in the beams of the sun!'
''Twas Love!' said the flower, and a scented sigh
Loaded the gale that murmured by.
'Twas Love! and the dew-drops that blushed on the wound
Sank slow and sad to the pitying ground.
''Twas Love!' said Flora: 'accursed be the power
That could blight the bloom of so fair a flower.
With whispers and smiles he wins Beauty's ears,
But he leaves her nothing save grief and tears.
Ye gods! shall he bend with such tyranny still
The weak and the strong to his wanton will?
No! the hearts that he joins may rude discord sever;
Accursed be his power for ever and ever.'
She spoke, and wept; and the echo again
Repeated the curse, but all in vain--
The tyrant laughed as he fluttered away,
Spreading his rainbow wings to the day,
And settling at random his feathered darts
To spoil sweet flowers, or break fond hearts.
He fled--and the queen o'er her flower in vain
Poured the evening dew and the April rain,
The purple spots on her heart still were.
And she said, as she wept her fruitless care,
'The blight and the stain may be washed away,
But what Love hath ruined must sink in decay.'
And she sent it on earth, to dwell below
In the autumn fog and the winter snow.
And even, 'tis said, on summer eves
O'er that sad lost flower she wails and grieves;
And the drops that by mortals as dew are seen
Are the tears of the mourning flower-queen.
And when men are gazing with fond delight
On its varied leaves, and call them bright,
And praise the velvet tints, and say
There never was flower more pure and gay:
That flow'ret says, as it droops its head,
'Alas! for the day when by love I bled;
When my feathery flowers were pure and white,
And my leaves had no earthly stain or blight,
When no chilling blasts around me blew,
And in Flora's garden of light I grew.
Oh! the blight and the stain may be washed away,
But what Love hath ruined must sink in decay.'
Scheme | aabbbbccbbddee ffgghhbb ibffbbddiibb aaxxjjaa xkebll kkaxeE ffmmnn bbeebbbbcceE |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 101110110010 110010110 111110011 0101101101 01110110101 110110111 011111111 0011101101 101110111 0110101101 1111001101 0111100111 110111111 11111101 10111111 1110101111 1101101101 111010111 0010010111 101011111 0010111111 11100111111 111101001 1011101 01101101011 111011111 110110111 111111101 111110111 1111001101 11101000101 10011101 11001111101 1101101001 1111011010 11101111010 110011111 1110101101 11111111001 0100111101 101111111010 11110110010 1101001001 010011101 0101111001 10111101 01001101101 111101111 110011001001 1010100101 010110110 0111110101 0100111101 11111011001 0111111101 0010100101 010111101 10111101101 00111101111 1011010101 0111101101 111010111 01010101 1101101101 111111111 0110111111 11100100101 0111110111 111010111 001101111 10100111101 11111011001 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 3,143 |
Words | 599 |
Sentences | 27 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 14, 8, 12, 8, 6, 6, 6, 12 |
Lines Amount | 72 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 303 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 74 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 25, 2023
- 3:01 min read
- 109 Views
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"On The Purple And White Carnation" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/4747/on-the-purple-and-white-carnation>.
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