William Carlos Williams: Daisy

.

Field of daisies and orange flowers, possibly hawkweed, Vermont: photo by John Collier, June 1943 (Library of Congress)

The dayseye hugging the earth


in August, ha! Spring is

gone down in purple,

weeds stand high in the corn,

the rainbeaten furrow

is clotted with sorrel

and crabgrass, the

branch is black under

the heavy mass of the leaves --

The sun is upon a

slender green stem

ribbed lengthwise.

He lies on his back --

it is a woman also --

he regards his former

majesty and

round the yellow center,

split and creviced and done into

minute flowerheads, he sends out

his twenty rays -- a little

and the wind is among them

to grow cool there!

One turns the thing over

in his hand and looks

at it from the rear: brownedged,

green and pointed scales

armor his yellow.

But turn and turn,

the crisp petals remain

brief, translucent, greenfastened,

barely touching at the edges:

blades of limpid seashell.

Daisy (Bellis perennis): photo by Friedrich Böhringer, 2007

William Carlos Williams: Daisy, from Sour Grapes (1921)