Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, DAFFODILS, by JOHN COWPER POWYS


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

DAFFODILS, by             Poem Explanation         Poet's Biography
First Line: A battered english actor, hired to act
Last Line: She stands -- the poor fool is no more forlorn.
Subject(s): Actors & Actresses; Daffodils; Flowers; Fools; Marigolds; Plays & Playwrights; Soul; Idiots


A battered English actor, hired to act
In a Chicago play-house, -- act the fool;
Lean purse, sick soul, nerves mercilessly racked
In what the preachers call life's wholesome school,

Shuffling down Wabash, with a heart that pined
For water-brooks and the eternal hills,
If not for Zion, was entranced to find,
In a shop-window, living daffodils.

"O Proserpina,
For the flowers now, that, frighted, thou let'st fall
From Dis's wagon!" In a moment fell
Before that golden shout the hated wall
That held him. All the hubbub, all the hell

Rolled like a vapour from the heart that ached;
And he saw Oxford, saw the lovely tower
Of Magdalen, saw the gardener-men who raked --
Old men, who had known Swinburne in his hour --

Dead leaves across the graves of poets dead;
And he saw purple loose-strife drowse and dream
As his barge passed it, drifting, and his head
Drowsed also, carried down that gracious stream.

And he forgot how he had played the mime,
Mimicked his fathers' gods to make them laugh,
Bawled the sweet ancient ditties out of time,
And for a drachma torn his soul in half.

He saw the marigolds which Isis yields;
He saw the Scholar-gipsy of the Song
Pass on his quest; he saw the Christ Church fields,
The sunlit banks and the familiar throng.

Wabash with all its rails and all its roar
Melted to nothing, and once more he moved
Wrapped in youth's dreams and legendary lore
Where Burton jested and where Shelley loved.

"For the flowers now, that" -- How his poor heart fills,
And his tense nerves relax! What dreams! What dreams!
He stops -- that bunch of living Daffodils
Brings more than Oxford to his eyes -- He seems

To hear the Mediterranean's brimming tide
Again; and from his wounded spirit, borne
Away, all anguish ceases; at his side
She stands -- the poor fool is no more forlorn.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net