The Seed-Shop

Muriel Stuart 1885 – 1967



Here in a quiet and dusty room they lie,
 Faded as crumbled stone or shifting sand,
Forlorn as ashes, shrivelled, scentless, dry -
 Meadows and gardens running through my hand.

In this brown husk a dale of hawthorn dreams;
 A cedar in this narrow cell is thrust
That will drink deeply of a century's streams;
 These lilies shall make summer on my dust.

Here in their safe and simple house of death,
 Sealed in their shells, a million roses leap;
Here I can blow a garden with my breath,
 And in my hand a forest lies asleep.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 25, 2023

30 sec read
120

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 521
Words 99
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4

Muriel Stuart

Muriel Stuart was The daughter of a Scottish barrister was a poet particularly concerned with the topic of sexual politics though she first wrote poems about World War I She later gave up poetry writing her last work was published in the 1930s She was born Muriel Stuart Irwin She was hailed by Hugh MacDiarmid as the best woman poet of the Scottish Renaissance although she was not Scottish but English Despite this his comment led to her inclusion in many Scottish anthologies Thomas Hardy described her poetry as Superlatively good Her most famous poem In the Orchard is entirely dialogs and in no kind of verse form which makes it innovative for its time She does use rhyme a mixture of half-rhyme and rhyming couplets abab form Other famous poems of hers are The Seed Shop The Fools and Man and his Makers Muriel also wrote a gardening book called Gardeners Nightcap 1938 which was later reprinted by Persephone Books more…

All Muriel Stuart poems | Muriel Stuart Books

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