Life
The Withering Posy
The speaker makes a posy but it withers by noon, symbolizing life's brevity.
I made a bouquet as the day passed. Now I'll smell what's left of it, and bind my life within this band.12 But time beckoned to the flowers, and by noon they had very cunningly stolen away and withered in my hand.✦3
Accepting Mortality
The speaker takes time's warning to heart, bids farewell to the flowers, and resolves to follow them without complaint, valuing a good scent over a long life.
My hand was next to them, and then my heart: without a second thought I took Time's gentle warning in stride—Time, who so sweetly conveyed death's sad taste, making my mind catch the scent of my own fatal day, yet sweetening the suspicion.4 Goodbye, dear flowers; you spent your time sweetly, fit while you lived for scent or ornament, and after death for medicine. I’m following right after you without complaint or grief, since if my scent is good, I don’t care if it’s as short as yours.5
Read the original English
I Made a posie, while the day ran by: Here will I smell my remnant out, and tie My life within this band. But time did becken to the flowers, and they By noon most cunningly did steal away, And wither'd in my hand.
My hand was next to them, and then my heart: I took, without more thinking, in good part Times gentle admonition: Who did so sweetly deaths sad taste convey, Making my minde to smell my fatall day; Yet sugring the suspicion.
Farewell deare flowers, sweetly your time ye spent, Fit, while ye liv'd, for smell or ornament, And after death for cures. I follow straight without complaints or grief, Since if my sent be good, I care not, if It be as short as yours.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Isa.40.6-Isa.40.8;Ps.103.15-Ps.103.16;1Pet.1.24;Jas.1.10-Jas.1.11 — A voice says, "Cry out!" And I said, "What shall I cry?" All flesh is grass, and all its faithfulness is like the flower of the field. Isa.40.7 — The grass withers, the flower fades, for the breath of the LORD blows upon it; truly, the grass is the people. Isa.40.8 — The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. Ps.103.15 — As for mortals, their days are like grass; like a flower of the field, so they blossom. Ps.103.16 — For the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more. 1Pet.1.24 — For all flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, Jas.1.10 — but the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. Jas.1.11 — For the sun rises with the scorching wind and withers the grass, and its flower falls and the beauty of its appearance is wasted; so also the rich man will fade away in his pursuits.
Notes
- 1 ↩Early modern posie/posy: a small bunch of flowers (and, by extension, the short motto sometimes tied with one). Here the floral sense governs the rest of the poem.
- 2 ↩To smell out the remnant is to use up, by smelling, whatever fragrance remains—of the flowers and, figuratively, of the speaker's remaining life.
- 3 ↩Source spelling becken is the early modern form of beckon; rendered as beckoned.
- 4 ↩Early modern 'in good part' kept as 'in good part' (accepted graciously). 'Sugring the suspicion' rendered as 'sweetening the suspicion': Time makes mortality palpable, but also softens the dread.
- 5 ↩Early modern spelling of 'scent' (fragrance): the speaker compares the quality of his life's fragrance to the flowers', not a dispatch or mission.
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