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Philip Freneau - The Wild Honey-Suckle

Fair flower, that dost so comely grow,
Hid in this silent, dull retreat,
Untouched thy honied blossoms blow,
Unseen thy little branches greet;
...No roving foot shall crush thee here,
...No busy hand provoke a tear.

By Nature's self in white arrayed,
She bade thee shun the vulgar eye,
And planted here the gaurdian shade,
And sent soft waters murmuring by;
...Thus quietly thy summer goes,
...Thy days declinging to repose.

Smit with those charms, that must decay,
I grieve to see your future doom;
They died--nor were those flowers more gay,
The flowers that did in Eden bloom;
...Unpitying frosts, and Autumn's power
...Shall leave no vestige of this flower.

From morning suns and evenign dews
At first thy little being came:
If nothing once, you nothing lose,
For when you die you are the same;
...The space between, is but an hour,
...The frail duration of a flower.

Added: on December 18th, 2008 at 2:30 PM | Viewed: 23431 times | Comments and analysis of The Wild Honey-Suckle by Philip Freneau Comments (9)


The Wild Honey-Suckle - Comments and Information

Poet: Philip Freneau (Philip Freneau Art)
Poem: The Wild Honey-Suckle
Poem of the Day: Aug 2 2000

Comment 9 of 9, added on April 24th, 2009 at 9:02 AM.

it's about virginity and sex. anyone who says it's beautiful is crazy

Danika from United States
Comment 8 of 9, added on March 2nd, 2009 at 5:49 AM.

hi,it's abderrahim.we are studying this poem in university,and i really like it.it is about life as an expierience;that's why iam sure every one like it.


abderrahim from Morocco
Comment 7 of 9, added on December 18th, 2008 at 2:30 PM.

While attending college in Michigan in the 1960's, I sometimes listened to a gifted radio host who read poetry aloud around the noon hour to the accompaniment of soothing background music. One day I heard what seemed to be an incredibly poignant verse comparing one's existence to that of a flower. In haste I committed the last four lines to memory. I had it a bit off, but close. For one, this "memory edition" began "From morning dews to evening dusks..." I went on to teach English for 27 years but never encountered the lines again until today when I did a web search and came across the entire poem. The final verse to me is very comforting to those of us with little religious faith. It says simply, that death is like the time before birth. It is a non-existence that is not to be feared. Anyway I am happy that after nearly 50 years, the puzzle of where these lines originated has been solved and that I now have the entire poem within my hands.

Jim

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