Analysis of Asphodel, That Greeny Flower
William Carlos Williams 1883 (Rutherford) – 1963 (Rutherford)
Of asphodel, that greeny flower,
like a buttercup
upon its branching stem-
save that it's green and wooden-
I come, my sweet,
to sing to you.
We lived long together
a life filled,
if you will,
with flowers. So that
I was cheered
when I came first to know
that there were flowers also
in hell.
Today
I'm filled with the fading memory of those flowers
that we both loved,
even to this poor
colorless thing-
I saw it
when I was a child-
little prized among the living
but the dead see,
asking among themselves:
What do I remember
that was shaped
as this thing is shaped?
while our eyes fill
with tears.
Of love, abiding love
it will be telling
though too weak a wash of crimson
colors it
to make it wholly credible.
There is something
something urgent
I have to say to you
and you alone
but it must wait
while I drink in
the joy of your approach,
perhaps for the last time.
And so
with fear in my heart
I drag it out
and keep on talking
for I dare not stop.
Listen while I talk on
against time.
It will not be
for long.
I have forgot
and yet I see clearly enough
something
central to the sky
which ranges round it.
An odor
springs from it!
A sweetest odor!
Honeysuckle! And now
there comes the buzzing of a bee!
and a whole flood
of sister memories!
Only give me time,
time to recall them
before I shall speak out.
Give me time,
time.
When I was a boy
I kept a book
to which, from time
to time,
I added pressed flowers
until, after a time,
I had a good collection.
The asphodel,
forebodingly,
among them.
I bring you,
reawakened,
a memory of those flowers.
They were sweet
when I pressed them
and retained
something of their sweetness
a long time.
It is a curious odor,
a moral odor,
that brings me
near to you.
The color
was the first to go.
There had come to me
a challenge,
your dear self,
mortal as I was,
the lily's throat
to the hummingbird!
Endless wealth,
I thought,
held out its arms to me.
A thousand tropics
in an apple blossom.
The generous earth itself
gave us lief.
The whole world
became my garden!
But the sea
which no one tends
is also a garden
when the sun strikes it
and the waves
are wakened.
I have seen it
and so have you
when it puts all flowers
to shame.
Too, there are the starfish
stiffened by the sun
and other sea wrack
and weeds. We knew that
along with the rest of it
for we were born by the sea,
knew its rose hedges
to the very water's brink.
There the pink mallow grows
and in their season
strawberries
and there, later,
we went to gather
the wild plum.
I cannot say
that I have gone to hell
for your love
but often
found myself there
in your pursuit.
I do not like it
and wanted to be
in heaven. Hear me out.
Do not turn away.
I have learned much in my life
from books
and out of them
about love.
Death
is not the end of it.
There is a hierarchy
which can be attain
Scheme | Text too long |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 111110 1010 011101 1111010 1111 1111 111010 011 111 11011 111 111111 1101010 01 01 1110101001110 1111 10111 1001 111 11101 10101010 1011 100101 111010 111 11111 11011 11 110101 11110 11101110 101 11110100 1110 1010 111111 0101 1111 1110 011101 011011 01 11011 1111 01110 11111 101111 011 1111 11 1101 01111001 10 10101 11011 110 111 01010 10001 11010101 0011 110100 10111 1111 011111 111 1 11101 1101 1111 11 110110 011001 1101010 01 1 011 111 010 01001110 101 1111 001 101110 011 11010010 01010 111 111 010 10111 11111 010 111 10111 011 1010 101 11 111111 01010 011010 0100101 111 011 01110 101 1111 110010 10111 001 11 1111 0111 111110 11 11101 10101 01011 01111 0110111 1101101 11110 1010101 101101 00110 10 0110 11110 011 1101 111111 111 110 111 0101 11111 01011 010111 11101 1111011 11 0111 011 1 110111 110100 11101 |
Closest metre | Iambic dimeter |
Characters | 4,112 |
Words | 554 |
Sentences | 41 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 149 |
Lines Amount | 149 |
Letters per line (avg) | 15 |
Words per line (avg) | 4 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 2,163 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 558 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 02, 2023
- 2:47 min read
- 1,786 Views
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"Asphodel, That Greeny Flower" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 18 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/39642/asphodel%2C-that-greeny-flower>.
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