Hast Thou A Song For A Flower.
William Gilmore Simms 1806 (Charleston) – 1870 (Charleston)
I.
HAST thou a song for a flower,
Such as, if breathed in its ear,
Would waken in beauty's own bower
The spirit most fit to be there?
Then, minstrel, I challenge thy power--
Such song, if thou hast, sing it here!--
Here, where the breeze o'erwearied,
With his travel o'er ocean creeps,
And on the green leaf by her lattice,
Sinks languidly down and sleeps.
II.
For her the sweet music thou bringest
Must in a true spirit be wrought,
And the passion of mine thou singest
Must be pure as the child's first thought.
If none such within thee springest,
Away, for thy presence is naught.
Far better the breeze, at waking,
Should tell her that hopeless I come,
With itself, to the leaf at her lattice,
And laid me down, dreaming but dumb.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 42 sec read
- 31 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABAXABCDED CCCCCCXFEF |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 719 |
Words | 139 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 10, 10 |
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"Hast Thou A Song For A Flower." Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/40622/hast-thou-a-song-for-a-flower.>.
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