Wildflowers And Hot-House Plants
Henrik Johan Ibsen 1828 (Skien, Telemark) – 1906 (Kristiania)
'GOOD Heavens, man, what a freak of taste!
What blindness to form and feature!
The girl's no beauty, and might be placed
As a hoydenish kind of creature.'
No doubt it were more in the current tone
And the tide today we move in,
If I could but choose me to make my own
A type of our average woman.
Like winter blossoms they all unfold
Their primly maturing glory;
Like pot-grown plants in the tepid mould
Of a window conservatory.
They sleep by rule and by rule they wake,
Each tendril is taught its duties;
Were I worldly-wise, yes, my choice I'd make
From our stock of average beauties.
For worldly wisdom what do I care?
I am sick of its prating mummers;
She breathes of the field and the open air,
And the fragrance of sixteen summers.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 16, 2023
- 42 sec read
- 97 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABAB CXCX DEDE FGFG HGHX |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 746 |
Words | 142 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
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"Wildflowers And Hot-House Plants" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/17242/wildflowers-and-hot-house-plants>.
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