To A Primrose

Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1772 (Ottery St Mary) – 1834 (Highgate)



The first seen in the season

Nitens et roboris expers
Turget et insolida est: et spe delectat.
- Ovid, Metam. [xv.203].

Thy smiles I note, sweet early Flower,
That peeping from thy rustic bower
The festive news to earth dost bring,
A fragrant messenger of Spring.

But, tender blossom, why so pale?
Dost hear stern Winter in the gale?
And didst thou tempt the ungentle sky
To catch one vernal glance and die?

Such the wan lustre Sickness wears
When Health's first feeble beam appears;
So languid are the smiles that seek
To settle on the care-worn cheek,

When timorous Hope the head uprears,
Still drooping and still moist with tears,
If, through dispersing grief, be seen
Of Bliss the heavenly spark serene.

And sweeter far the early blow,
Fast following after storms of Woe,
Than (Comfort's riper season come)
Are full-blown joys and Pleasure's gaudy bloom.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 28, 2023

45 sec read
190

Quick analysis:

Scheme X ABX CCDD EEXB AAFF AAGG HHXX
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 843
Words 150
Stanzas 7
Stanza Lengths 1, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet, literary critic and philosopher who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets. more…

All Samuel Taylor Coleridge poems | Samuel Taylor Coleridge Books

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    "To A Primrose" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/34380/to-a-primrose>.

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