Welcome back to Flower Poetry Fridays with Mrs. Sigourney. Each Friday a new poem will be posted from her The Voice Of Flowers.
THE BLOSSOM AND THE
BEAUTIFUL. Youthful Blossoms of Rue Anemone
To a bright bud, with heart of flame,
The angel of the seasons came,
Took its close-shrouding hood away,
And rais’d its forehead to the day,—
And from its blushing depths updrew
A stream of incense, fresh as dew.
He kiss’d its cheek, and went his way,
And then a form, with temples grey,
Crept to its side, and taught it how
To shrink, to shrivel, and to bow,—
On the cold earth its lip to lay,
And mix with fair things pass’d away.
Thus, to a maid, in beauty’s spring,
Love’s angel came, on radiant wing,
Nerv’d the light foot to skim the plain,
And made the voice a music strain,—
And wreath’d his cestus round her breast,
Till every eye her power confest.
A ghastly shade, with lifted dart.
Strode to her couch, and chill’d her heart.
Pale grew the brow, which roses fir’d ;
And the soft breath in sighs expir’d :
Yet that which bound her to the sky
Escap’d his shaft. It could not die.
This poem seems to be about the seasonal nature of life and about death that eventually overcomes us all.
Or is it a more subtle message about losing virginity? I don’t know about you, but it kinda sounds like Mrs. Sigourney is talking about sex or perhaps how losing one’s “youth” is like the seasons advancing. Using words like bosom, ‘lifted dart’, and shaft could have something to do with flowers, but we’re not sure what she was thinking.
Perhaps it’s a message about how our lives can be viewed as seasons. We all have our time in the sun as youthful, exuberant ones. Energy of youth finds love, life is lived, and finally the angel of the seasons brings us to our Autumn and Wintertime.
I’d love to hear how you view or interpret this poem. Leave a comment below!
Come back next Friday for the next installment in our series of flower poems from Mrs. Sigourney’s The Voice of Flowers, “The Snow Drop”.
