TO DAFFODILS

A constant theme of the songs written by Robert Herrick is the short-lived nature of
life, the fleeting passage of time. We find a note of melancholy/sadness in his poem
which arises out of the realization that beauty is not going to stay forever.
In his poem To Daffodils, the poet Robert Herrick begins by saying that we
grieve to see the beautiful daffodils being wasted away very quickly. The duration of
their gloom is so short that it seems even the rising sun still hasnt reached the
noon-time. Thus, in the very beginning the poet has struck a note of mourning at
the fast dying of daffodils.
The poet then addresses the daffodils and asks them to stay until the clay ends with
the evening prayer. After praying together he says that they will also accompany
the daffodils. This is so because like flowers men too have a very transient life and
even the youth is also very short-lived.
We have short time to stay, as you,
We have as short a spring.
The poet symbolically refers to the youth as spring in these lines. He
equates/compares human life with the life of daffodils. Further he says that both of
them grow very fast to be destroyed later. Just like the short duration of the flowers,
men too die away soon. Their life is as short as the rain of the summer season,
which comes for a very short time; and the dew-drops in the morning, which vanish
away and never return again. Thus, the poet after comparing the flowers to
humans, later turns to the objects of nature he has compared the life of daffodils
with summer rain, dew drops.
The central idea presented by the poet in this poem is that like the flowers we
humans have a very short life in this world. The poet laments that we too life all
other beautiful things soon slip into the shadow and silence of grave. A sad and
thoughtful mood surrounds the poem.

In this poem also the main theme is about the fleeting nature of time , which has
been illustrated with the help of metaphor of Daffodils.
In the first stanza the poet is supplicating the Daffodils not to wilt so soon, because
still the rising sun has not attained his full noon . The poet feels melancholy when
he sees them haste away so soon, so he request them so stay for some more time
till the hasting day has run till the evening song. He tells the Daffodils that even he
can join them on their journey having finished his days prayer.
In the second and last stanza the poet compares human being with that of Daffodils
in the sense that like them we too have short life. We also grow like them and after
attaining maturity (in age) decay like them. Our death is compared to that of
summer's rain, or as the pearls of morning dew never to be found again.Just as the
morning's dew and summer's rain dries away fast and forgotten, we too once dead
get faded in the oblivion.

In this poem also the main theme is about the fleeting nature of time , which has
been illustrated with the help of metaphor of Daffodils.
In the first stanza the poet is supplicating the Daffodils not to wilt so soon, because
still the rising sun has not attained his full noon . The poet feels melancholy when
he sees them haste away so soon, so he request them so stay for some more time
till the hasting day has run till the evening song. He tells the Daffodils that even he
can join them on their journey having finished his days prayer.
In the second and last stanza the poet compares human being with that of Daffodils
in the sense that like them we too have short life. We also grow like them and after
attaining maturity (in age) decay like them. Our death is compared to that of
summer's rain, or as the pearls of morning dew never to be found again.Just as the
morning's dew and summer's rain dries away fast and forgotten, we too once dead
get faded in the oblivion.