Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A CITY FLOWER by HENRY AUSTIN DOBSON

Poet Analysis

First Line: TO AND FRO IN THE CITY I GO
Last Line: THAT HAD SETTLED OVER MY HEART.
Subject(s): CITIES; URBAN LIFE;
'Il y a des fleurs animees.' -- POLITE COLLOQUIALISM.

TO and fro in the City I go,
Tired of the ceaseless ebb and flow,
Sick of the crowded mart;
Tired of the din and rattle of wheels,
Sick of the dust as one who feels
The dust is over his heart.

And again and again, as the sunlight wanes,
I think of the lights in the leafy lanes,
With the bits of blue between;
And when about Rimmel's the perfumes play,
I smell no vapours of 'Ess Bouquet,'
But violets hid in the green;
And I love -- how I love -- the plants that fill
The pots on my dust-dry window-sill, --
A sensitive sickly crop, --
But a flower that charms me more, I think,
Than cowslip, or crocus, or rose, or pink,
Blooms -- in a milliner's shop.

Hazel eyes that wickedly peep,
Flash, abash, and suddenly sleep
Under the lids drawn in;
Ripple of hair that rioteth out,
Mouth with a half-born smile and a pout,
And a baby breadth of chin;
Hands that light as the lighting bird,
On the bloom-bent bough, and the bough is stirred
With a delicate ecstasy;
Fingers tipped with a roseate flush,
Flicking and flirting a feathery brush
Over the papery bonnetry; --
Till the gauzy rose begins to glow,
And the gauzy hyacinths break and blow,
And the dusty grape grows red;
And the flaunting grasses seem to say,
'Do we look like ornaments -- tell us, we pray --
Fit for a lady's head?'
And the butterfly wakes to a wiry life,
Like an elderly gentleman taking a wife,
Knowing he must be gay,
And all the bonnets nid-noddle about,
Like chattering chaperons set at a rout,
Quarrelling over their play.

How can I otherwise choose than look
At the beautiful face like a beautiful book,
And learn a tiny part?
So I feel somehow that every day
Some flake of the dust is brushed away
That had settled over my heart.



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