BRAVE flowers–that I could gallant it like you,
And be as little vain!
You come abroad, and make a harmless show,
And to your beds of earth again.
You are not proud: you know your birth:
For your embroider’d garments are from earth.
You do obey your months and times, but I
Would have it ever Spring:
My fate would know no Winter, never die,
Nor think of such a thing.
O that I could my bed of earth but view
And smile, and look as cheerfully as you!
O teach me to see Death and not to fear,
But rather to take truce!
How often have I seen you at a bier,
And there look fresh and spruce!
You fragrant flowers! then teach me, that my breath
Like yours may sweeten and perfume my death.
Henry King, January 1592-September 1669, was an English poet and Bishop. He was educated at Oxford and it is said that much of his poetry was influenced by John Donne and Ben Johnson. The collection of Poems, Elegies, Paradoxes and Sonnets bearing his name was not prepared by him and included poems by others (britannica.com)
The Break Down
What is the poem about?
Through this poem we see King’s struggle to accept death. We see his wish in stanza one to be graceful like the flowers; in stanza two to never die, and then to look at death cheerfully; and finally in stanza three to be rid of his fear and to accept death with grace.
Stanza 1
BRAVE flowers–that I could gallant it like you,
King sees the flowers as brave, and gallant. Both words are close in meaning, but consider the imagery that gallant provokes. Heroism, saviours, knights in shining armour, a respectable person. This emphasises his respect and appreciation. Bear in mind that King’s profession was a righteous one. He was a Bishop. This line is also a simile; the Bishop wishes that he were like the flowers, gallant and brave.
And be as little vain!
The flowers to him have little regard for their person.
You come abroad, and make a harmless show,
And to your beds of earth again.
You are not proud: you know your birth:
The flowers are humble, they are not proud (sentiment continued from line 2). They know their purpose, they serve it and they have not forgotten where they came from. This is the first time we see death echoed here (line 4) ” And to your beds of earth again.”
For your embroider’d garments are from earth.
They owe their beauty to the earth.
Personification features heavily in this stanza. The flowers are attributed the characteristics of bravery, gallantness, and a lack of vanity and pride.
Stanza 2
You do obey your months and times,
King merely states that the life cycle of the flower echoes the seasonal changes.
…but I
Would have it ever Spring:
The poet wishes otherwise, as we see in the next two lines presented here above. He “would have it ever spring”; flowers bloom and flourish in spring time. If it was always spring, flowers would be in a perpetual state of growth, and beauty. They would remain forever in their prime:
My fate would know no Winter, never die,
Nor think of such a thing.
There would be no wilting, no shedding of petals, or anything that a flower tends to do shortly before death. Death would not even be a consideration: “nor think of such a thing”. This is ultimately what the Bishop wants, not to die, to remain forever in his prime.
O that I could my bed of earth but view
And smile, and look as cheerfully as you!
He knows that he cannot escape death, “my bed of earth”. His wish to be comfortable with death, is made explicit here. There is no doubt now, about his fear. The very next line echoes this sentiment and begs for a lesson.
Personification is seen here once more “And smile, and look as cheerfully as you!”
Stanza 3
O teach me to see Death and not to fear,
But rather to take truce!
When death approaches, he does not want to fear it. This is the lesson he wishes to be taught. As the flowers “smile and look as cheerfully” as they do on death, so too would the Bishop like to greet his end. He also wishes for no hostility, note the use of the word truce. Not to say that death would be hostile, but for all his fear, it may as well be. This underlies the extent of the discomfort he feels when he considers death.
Up until this point the poem was quite euphemistic. Death was not explicitly stated as the enemy, except for a soft reference in stanza three “My fate would know no Winter, never die”; when comparing himself once more to the flowers, in his wish for perpetual spring.
How often have I seen you at a bier,
And there look fresh and spruce!
The bier (the stand on which a corpse or coffin is placed to lie in state or to be carried to the grave) is often adorned with fresh flowers.
You fragrant flowers! then teach me, that my breath
Like yours may sweeten and perfume my death.
Just like flowers sweeten the air with their scent and make the environment more pleasant, it is his hope that he can be taught to look at death with a pleasant eye. Irony is featured in this stanza (lines 15-18); as death is often a somber affair, yet-based on the imagery given-the flowers are seemingly as pretty as the day they bloomed.
Things to Consider
Henry King is a Bishop, one would not expect a Bishop to have these musings. It is often assumed that members of the church and especially the clergy, would be comfortable with their deaths as it is often promoted and extolled by the church the benefits of a sin free life so that one may “welcome death with open arms” as our Bishop here so desperately wants to do.
One can also consider line 6:
For your embroider’d garments are from earth.
as having a double meaning. The “embroider’d garments” of the flower are literally from the earth; however so are the garments of the Bishop’s office. They are given to him by man and are earthly, and as such could be a hindrance to his acceptance of death.
Something is holding this Bishop back from acceptance that led him to “contemplate flowers”. Though we do not know the state of the Bishop’s life when he wrote the poem, we can surmise that he was troubled by something which led him to fear death.
With an overarching theme of death, the tone is one of admiration; the mood is pensive; and a contrast is made between King’s fear of death and the flower’s graceful acceptance.