Analysis of To The Fossil Flower
Jones Very 1813 (Salem) – 1880
Dark fossil flower! I see thy leaves unrolled,
With all thy lines of beauty freshly marked,
As when the eye of Morn beamed on thee first,
And thou first turn'dst to meet its welcome smile.
And sometimes in the coals' bright rain-bow hues,
I dream I see the colors of thy prime,
And for a moment robe thy form again
In splendor not its own. Flower of the past!
Now as I look on thee, life's echoing tread
Falls noiseless on my ear; the present dies;
And o'er my soul the thoughts of distant time,
In silent waves, like billows from the sea,
Come roling on and on, with ceaseless flow,
Innumerable. Thou may'st have sprung unsown
Into thy noon of life, when first earth heard
Its Maker's sovereign voice; and laughing flowers
Waved o'er the meadows, hung on mountain crags,
And nodded in the breeze on every hill.
Thou may'st have bloomed unseen, save by the stars
That sang together o'er thy rosy birth,
And came at eve to watch thy folded rest.
None may have sought thee on thy flagrant home,
Save light-voiced winds that round thy dwelling played,
Or seemed to sigh, as oft their winged haste
Compelled their feet to roam. Thou may'st have lived
Beneath the light of later days, when man
With feet free-roving as the homeless wind,
Sealed the thick-mantled height, coursed plains unshorn,
Breaking the solitude of nature's haunt
With voice that seemed to blend, in one sweet strain,
The mingled music of the elements.
And when against his infant frame they rose,
Uncurbed, unawed by his yet feeble hand,
And when the muttering storm, and shouting wave,
And rattling thunder, mated, round him raged,
And seemed at times like dæmon foes to gird,
Thou may'st have won with gentle look his heart,
And stirred the first warm prayer of gratitude,
And been his first, his simplest altar-gift.
For thee, dark flower! the kindling sun can bring
No more the colors that it gave, nor morn,
With kindly kiss, restore thy breathing sweets:
Yet may the mind's mysterious touch recall
The bloom and fragrance of thy early prime:
For HE who to the lowly lily gave
A glory richer than to proudest king,
He painted not those darkly-shining leaves,
With blushes like the dawn, in vain; nor gave
To thee its sweetly-scented breath, to waste
Upon the barren air. E'en though thou stood
Alone in nature's forest-home untrod,
The first-love of the stars and sighing winds,
The mineral holds with faithful trust thy form,
To wake in human hearts sweet thoughts of love,
Now the dark past hangs round thy memory.
Scheme | AAABCDEAAFDGHEAICJKLAMAAANAEAOPQARAAAAASTUVDRSWRAAAXYZG |
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Poetic Form | Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 1101011111 1111110101 1101111111 0111111101 0010011111 1111010111 0101011101 01011110101 11111111001 111110101 01011011101 0101110101 1101011101 01000111111 0111111111 11010101010 1100111101 01000111001 11111011101 11010101101 0111111101 1111111101 1111111101 111111111 01111111111 0101110111 1111010101 10111111 100101101 1111110111 0101010100 0101110111 11111101 01010010101 0101010111 0111111111 11111110111 010111110 0111110101 11110010111 1101011111 1101011101 1101010011 0101011101 1111010101 0101011101 1101110101 1101010111 1111010111 01010111111 010101011 0111010101 01001110111 1101011111 1011111100 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 2,443 |
Words | 441 |
Sentences | 14 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 55 |
Lines Amount | 55 |
Letters per line (avg) | 36 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 1,957 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 439 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:16 min read
- 26 Views
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"To The Fossil Flower" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/24422/to-the-fossil-flower>.
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