Poetry Sunday: To Daffodils by Robert Herrick

When I think of spring, I imagine daffodils - hills painted gold by them as far as the eye can see. After all, daffodils are the quintessential spring flower and, as Robert Herrick wrote some four hundred years ago, they "haste away so soon." But while they last, they are glorious!

Herrick goes further, however, to compare our lives to the lives of the daffodils. Like them, we, too, "have short time to stay." All the more reason to treasure every moment.

To Daffodils

by Robert Herrick

Fair Daffodils, we weep to see
You haste away so soon;
As yet the early-rising sun
Has not attain'd his noon.
Stay, stay,
Until the hasting day
Has run
But to the even-song;
And, having pray'd together, we
Will go with you along.

We have short time to stay, as you,
We have as short a spring;
As quick a growth to meet decay,
As you, or anything.
We die
As your hours do, and dry
Away,
Like to the summer's rain;
Or as the pearls of morning's dew,
Ne'er to be found again.

Comments

  1. Lark February 19, 2023 at 1:53 PM

    Love it! We have some daffodils planted right in front of our house that are starting to peek through the dirt. They're always the first flowers to bloom every spring. :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dorothy BordersFebruary 21, 2023 at 9:02 AM

      Mine have just started to bloom this week so I know that spring is truly just around the corner!

      Delete
  2. AnonymousOctober 21, 2024 at 8:54 AM

    We don't have daffodils couse we are Bangladeshi 😔

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dorothy BordersOctober 22, 2024 at 8:38 AM

      No doubt you have other flowers just as lovely or more so.

      Delete

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