The Language of Flowers

Foreword
From The Homeric Hymn to Demeter
SPRING
EMILY DICKINSON 'The feet of people walking home'
PIR SULTAN ABDAL 'I asked the yellow crocuses'
D. H. LAWRENCE Italian Crocuses
SAPPHO .. frankly, I wish that I were dead'
ROBERT HERRICK How Violets Came Blue
JOHN CLARE To the Violet
ALICE OSWALD Violet
HENRY HAWKINS
From 'The Virgin': The Violet
LORENZO DE' MEDICI
Sonnet XCIV: 'O lovely violet'
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH Song: 'She dwelt among
th' untrodden ways'
EDWARD THOMAS Celandine
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH To the Small Celandine
OVID From Metamorphoses: Venus's Lament
for Adonis
IBN AL-ZAQQAQ Anemones
RAINER MARIA RILKE From Sonnets to Orpheus
WILLIAM SHAKESPEAHE From The Winter's Tale:
Proserpina's Flowers
ROBERT HERRICK To Primroses Filled with
Morning Dew
JOHN CLARE The Primrose Bank
ADELAIDE CRAPSF.Y Blue Hyacinths
OVID From Metamorphoses'. The Death of
Hyacinthus
CHARLES TOMLINSON The Metamorphosis
BEN JONSON Echo's Song
A. E. HOUSMAN 'Look not in my eyes, for fear'
AL-SANAWBARI Eyes of Narcissi
ABDALLAH IBN AL-MU'TAZZ 'Looking, the
narcissus, looking'
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH 'I wandered lonely
as a cloud'
U. A. FANTHORPE Daffodil Ministry
ROBERT HERRICK To Daffodils
HAFEZ From the Divan of Hafez
EMILY DICKINSON 'Some rainbow coming from
the fair'
NECATI Ghazal: 'What have those tulip-cheeks
not done'
JAMES FENTON Yellow Tulips
E. J. SCOVELL Deaths of Flowers
ISSA 'Irises - '
ANTHONY HECHT Look Deep
WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS Iris
WII.LIAM MOHRIS The Gillyflower of Gold
KIM SOWOL Azaleas
ISSA 'the little shrine'
RICHARD WILBUR Signatures
CHARLOTTE SMITH
Sonnet LX: To an Amiable Girl
MIMI KHALVATI Ghazal: Lilies of the Valley
EDMUND SPENSER The Merry Month of May
WALTER DE LA MARE 'The Hawthorn Hath a
Deathly Smell'
CHRISTINA ROSSETTI A Bed of Forget-Me-Nots
JOHN CLARE The Cowslips
IBN SA'ID The Virgin
A. E. HOUSMAN 'Oh see how thick the goldcup
flowers'
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL To the Dandelion
ROY MARSHALL Dandytime
JAMES HURDIS From The Village Curate
GEOFFREY CHAUCER The Daisy
CHRISTINA ROSSETTI 'Where innocent brighteyed
daisies are'
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH To the Daisy
EMILY DICKINSON 'So has a daisy vanished'
JON SILKIN A Daisy
IBN BILLITA Marguerite
LOUISE GLUCK Mock Orange
RENE RAPIN Peony
WANG WEI Red Peonies
BUSON 'Sadness at twilight
EMPEHOR YANG Peonies at Jixing Temple
LILIES AND ROSES
IBN DARRAJ AL-QASTALLI Lilies
ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON From Balin and Balan
DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI Mary's Girlhood
WILLIAM BLAKE The Lilly
ROBERT HERRICK The Lily in a Crystal
THE NEW TESTAMENT From Matthew 6
EDMUND SPENSER Song of the Enchantress
LOUISE GLUCK The Silver Lily
OSCAR WII.DE Requiescat
EMILY DICKINSON 'Through the dark sod'
RUTH PITTER Lilies and Wine
ANGELUS SILESIUS 'The rose is without why'
ACHILLES TATIUS Leucippe's Song
KISA'I 'The rose - a rich gift'
RUMI The Rose
RAINER MARIA RILKE From The Roses
ANON. 'There is no rose'
AUSONIUS On Newblown Roses
EDMUND WALLER 'Go, lovely Rose'
ANON. On a Rosebud Sent to Her Lover
ROBERT HERRICK Upon Roses
HAFEZ The Nightingale and the Rose
J. W. VON GOETHE Rosebud in the Heather
WILLIAM BLAKE The Sick Rose
SOR JUANA INKS DE LA CRUZ Sonnet CXLVII: In which
she morally censures a rose, and
thereby all that resemble it
JOSE MARTI A White Rose
WILLIAM BLARE My Pretty Rose Tree
E. NESBIT Among His Books
MARIANNE MOORE Injudicious Gardening
RUTH PITTER From Gardeners All
DOROTHY PARKER Rondeau
THEOPHILE GAUTIER The Tea-Rose
H. D. Sea Rose
W. B. YEATS To The Rose Upon the Rood
of Time
JORGE LUIS BORGES A Rose and Milton
SUMMER
EDMUND SPENSER Sonnet LXIV: 'Comming to
kisse her lyps'
AMY LOWEI.L Madonna of the Evening Flowers
ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE Love in a Mist
BORIS PASTERNAK Night Violet
WALTER DE LA MARE Noon and Night Flower
DOROTHY PARKER The Evening Primrose
TED HUGHES Sunstruck Foxglove
DENISE LEVERTOV In Praise of Allium
GILLES DURANT Le Soulcy
ANON. Kangra Folk Song
VICKI LEAVER Marigolds
SEAMUS HEANEY Lupins
ALICE OSWALD Thrift
EMILY DICKINSON 'I was the slightest in
the house'
ROBERT BROWNING Evelyn Hope
ROBERT HERRICK How Pansies or Heart's-Ease
Came First
ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE A Flower-Piece
by Fantin
CHRISTINA ROSSETTI 'Heartsease in my
garden bed'
DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI The Honeysuckle
PHILIP FRENEAU The Wild Honey Suckle
ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON From The Princess: 'Now
sleeps the crimson petal'
FRANCES SARGENT OSGOOD
The Lily's Delusion
RYOKAN The Lotus
HUANG E To the Tune of'Soaring Clouds'
HEINRICH HEINE Lotus Blossom
SAROJINI NAIDU The Lotus
SALLY WEN MAO Mad Honey Soliloquy
HORACE Odes I, 38
MARY ELIZABETH COLERIDGE Jealousy
H. D. Leda
WILLIAM COWPER The Poet, the Oyster, and
Sensitive Plant
JON SILKIN Harebell
WILLIAM CAHLOS WILLIAMS Queen-Ann's-Lace
VAYILANREVAN What She Said
RABINDRANATH TAGORE The First Jasmines
GIOVANNI PASCOLI Night Blooming Jasmine
VICTOR HUGO My Two Daughters
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE From The Winter's Tale:
Flowers of Middle Summer
PETER PHILLIPS Red Carnations
OVID From Metamorphoses-. Opium Poppies
J. W. VON GOETHE A Thing of Beauty
VIRGIL The Death of Euryalus
JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS Love in Dreams
W.S. GILBERT The Esthete
ISAAC ROSENBERG Break of Day in the Trenches
MARY OLIVER Poppies
AUTUMN
KAO CH'I Sunflower
WILLIAM BLAKE Ah! Sun-flower'
CHANG YU Yellow Sunflower of Szechwan
EUGENIO MONTALE The Sunflower
JOHN CLARE The Ragwort
ANNE STEVENSON Ragwort
GUILLAUME APOLLINAIRE Autumn Crocuses
AMY LOWELL Autumn
PAUL VERLAINE A Dahlia
AMY CLAMPITT The Smaller Orchid
RYOKAN 'I descended to the valley to gather
orchids'
THEODORE ROETHKE Carnations
H. D. Sheltered Garden
EMILY BRONTtt High Waving Heather
D. H. LAWRENCE Bavarian Gentians
WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT To the Fringed
Gentian
EMILY DICKINSON There is a flower that
bees prefer'
BASIL BUNTING 'Three Michaelmas daisies'
SARA TEASDALE Wild Asters
VIRGIL Star-wort
AMY CLAMPITT The Field Pansy
SYLVIA PLATH Poppies in October
D. H. LAWRENCE Sicilian Cyclamens
PO ciiu-i The Chrysanthemums in the
Eastern Garden
RAINER MARIA RILKE Crowned with Dreams
RYOTA 'They spoke no word'
WINTER
JOHN EPPEL Star of Bethlehem
MEDBH MCGUCKIAN The Orchid House
SARA TEASDALE In a Cuban Garden
ROSALIA DE CASTRO 'In my small garden'
EMILY BRONTE 'The blue bell is the sweetest flower'
MARIANNE MOORE Rosemary
KING HENRY VIII 'Green groweth the holly'
ISSA 'winter wind - '
CHARLES LASSAII.LY The Camellia
MICHAEL FIELD Cyclamens
RASHO Two haiku
MARY ROBINSON Ode to the Snow-drop
TED HUGHES Snowdrop
CHRISTINA ROSSETTI Endure Hardness
CHARLES TOMLINSON The Order of Saying
CAROL ANN DUFFY Demeter
THE LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS
THOMAS HAYNES BAYLY The Myrtle
LEIGH HUNT Love-Letters Made of Flowers
WINTHROP MACKWORTH PRAED A Letter
of Advice
ROBERT BURNS The Posie
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING From Sonnets from
the Portuguese-. 'Beloved, thou hast
brought me many flowers'
A. MARY F. ROBINSON A Dialogue
CHRISTINA ROSSETTI 'A rose has thorns as well
as honey'
STEPHANE MALLARME The Flowers
WILFRED OWEN The Send-off
CHRISTINA ROSSETTI Consider the Lilies of
the Field
PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY The Question
BRENDA SHAUGHNESSY Red Tulips, Then
Asphodel
ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON Moral from
The Day-Dream
Select Glossary
Notes
Acknowledgments