FLOWERS to the fair: To you these flowers I bring,
And strive to greet you with an earlier spring.
Flowers sweet, and gay, and delicate like you;
Emblems of innocence, and beauty too.
With flowers the Graces bind their yellow hair,
And flowery wreaths consenting lovers wear.
Flowers, the sole luxury which nature knew,
In Eden's pure and guiltlese garden grew.
To loftier forms are rougher tasks assign'd;
The sheltering oak resists the stormy wind,
The tougher yew repels invading foes,
And the tall pine for future navies grows;
But this soft family, to cares unknown,
Were born for pleasure and delight alone.
Gay without toil, and lovely without art,
They spring to cheer the sense, and glad the heart.
Nor blush, my fair, to own you copy these;
Your best, your sweetest empire is—-to please.
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This truly is a beautiful poem, the descriptions of love and showing of the emblems these flowers show, maybe if this were written today as we have many hardy flowers, then it would be very different maybe saying something like
Flowers sweet, and gay, and hardy like you;
Emblems of strength, and beauty too.
Just a thought, brilliantly penned although I don't agree with what it says........................
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This is certainly a beautiful poem with quite some "flowery" language, the meter is right and the rhyme scheme works well, the descriptions are quite beautiful. But I think, were I the lady to receive this I would be a bit offended. Barbauld is saying that a delicate flower, or a lady are meant for nothing more than looking pretty, they have no real purpose, no real talents-- "lovely without art." Even though it was a woman who wrote this, feminism has to skew my view of it a bit.
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This gave me the image of a someone painting a nude body of their love. That's what the 'metaphorical' sense gave me. And the perception that entails within that particular aspect.
It's a wonderful piece, I found no error with it, if I could applaud this piece, I would. It's a most excellent piece.
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I like the description of flowers as existing solely to bring happiness, unlike more rugged plants. It brings up images of a fair lady that I imagine gladly receiving them. To say that she exists only to bring light into other people's lives is a great compliment, though a bit heavy handed. Another striking impression of this poem I get, a far darker one, compares both flowers and the fair lady to trophies, meant to be looked at and enjoyed by others, but never seeking their own survival.
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What a beautiful way to describe the flowers! Fragile and delicate they are a "soft family" but their loveliness is just as unique as that of a lady to whom this is dedicated. The rhyme scheme is greta and if I'm not mistaken this is written in iambic pentameter, or at least some of the lines are. Beautiful images, soft and delicate. The ending lines brings a sweet sense of closure to the poem.
~Anastasia
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