Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SUMMER FLOWERS, by WHITTIER W. WELLMAN


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SUMMER FLOWERS, by                    
First Line: I have loved others better
Last Line: I am content.
Subject(s): Contentment; Hearts; Love; Man-woman Relationships; Male-female Relations


I HAVE loved others better ...
Others have been more beautiful than she,
With their half-closed eyes and luring smile
They have played the game with simplicity that is art:
Art that is fire, and burning wreathing incense, and summer flowers;
—Such were the others that I loved.
But she burns no incense to the clear sky,
And her flowers are of the Spring and the rains;—
I do not know if she is beautiful. I think she must be.
I look for it, but as I look I forgot what I seek in her.
She is before me, subtly lacking everything I look for,
And giving me instead, what she is.
That I did not seek.
I am not mad about her.
I have loved others better ...
But the quiet of the day when I am with her
Makes me forget the others as dead leaves blown past.
Her hand is small, and firm and smooth as I greet her,
And I like to press it; but the hot burning of summer flowers
Is not there,—and her smile is an odd smile, even cool.
My blood does not race furiously when I speak to her,
But the stillness of content is in my heart,
And it is sweet.
I have loved others better ...
But her I love as I have not loved the others,—
In my own fashion, with a sense of infinite time ... Indefinite.
I am content.





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