John Keats on Flowers

“Open afresh your round of starry folds, Ye ardent marigolds! Dry up the moisture from your golden lips.”

“Underneath large blue-bells tented Where the daisies are rose-scented, And the rose herself has got Perfume which on earth is not.”

“And O and O, The daisies blow, And the primroses are waken'd; And the violets white Sit in silver plight, And the green bud's as long as the spike end.”

“Here are sweet peas, on tiptoe for a flight; With wings of gentle flush o'er delicate white, And taper fingers catching at all things, To bind them all about with tiny rings.”

“Young playmates of the rose and daffodil, Be careful ere ye enter in, to fill Your baskets high With fennel green, and balm, and golden pines Savory latter-mint, and columbines.”

“A tuft of evening primroses, O'er which the mind may hover till it dozes; O'er which it well might take a pleasant sleep, But that 'tis ever startled by the leap Of buds into ripe flowers.”

“Above his head Four lily stalks did their white honours wed To make a coronal; and round him grew All tendrils green, of every bloom and hue, Together intertwined and trammell'd fresh; The vine of glossy sprout; the ivy mesh, Shading its Ethiop berries.”