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Daffodil Odes

The daffodil is our doorside queen;
  She pushes upward the sword already,
    To spot with sunshine the early green.
      - William Cullen Bryant, An Invitation to the Country

What ye have been ye still shall be
  When we are dust the dust among,
    O yellow flowers!
      - Henry Austin Dobson, To Daffodils

Fair daffadils, we weep to see
  You haste away so soone;
    As yet the early-rising sun
      Has not attained its noone.
        . . . .
          We have short time to stay as you,
            We have as short a spring;
              As quick a growth to meet decay
                As you or anything.
      - Robert Herrick, Daffadills

When a daffadill I see,
  Hanging down his head t'wards me,
    Guesse I may, what I must be:
      First, I shall decline my head;
        Secondly, I shall be dead:
          Lastly, safely buryed.
      - Robert Herrick, Hesperides--Divination by a Daffadill

"O fateful flower beside the rill--
  The Daffodil, the daffodil!"
      - Jean Ingelow, Persephone (st. 16)

It is daffodil time, so the robins all cry,
  For the sun's a big daffodil up in the sky,
    And when down the midnight the owl call "to-whoo"!
      Why, then the round moon is a daffodil too;
        Now sheer to the bough-tops the sap starts to climb,
          So, merry my masters, it's daffodil time.
      - Clinton Scollard, Daffodil Time

Then the face of night is fair in the dewy downs
  And the shining daffodil dies.
      - Lord Alfred Tennyson, Maud (pt. III, st. 1)

O Love-star of the unbeloved March,
  When cold and shrill,
    Forth flows beneath a low, dim-lighted arch
      The wind that beats sharp crag and barren hill,
        And keeps unfilmed the lately torpid rill!
      - Sir Aubrey de Vere, Ode to the Daffodil

Daffy-down-dilly came up in the cold,
  Through the brown mould
    Although the March breeze blew keen on her face,
      Although the white snow lay in many a place.
      - Anna B. Warner ("Amy Lothrop"), Daffy-Down-Dilly

There is a tiny yellow daffodil,
  The butterfly can see it from afar,
    Although one summer evening's dew could fill
      Its little cup twice over, ere the star
        Had called the lazy shepherd to his fold,
          And be no prodigal.
      - Oscar Wilde, The Burden of Stys

A host of golden daffodils;
  Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
    Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
      - William Wordsworth, I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

I have loved flowers that fade,
  Within those magic tents
    Rich hues have marriage made
      With sweet unmemoried scents.
      - Robert Seymour Bridges, Shorter Poets (bk. II, 13)

Brazen helm of daffodillies,
  With a glitter toward the light.
    Purple violets for the mouth,
      - Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Hector in the Garden

Flowers are words
  Which even a babe may understand.
      - Bishop Arthur Cleveland Coxe, The Singing of Birds

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