A too closely watched flower/blossoms the wrong color./ Excess attention to the jonquil/turns it gentian. Flowers/need it tranquil to get/their hues right. Some/only open at midnight.

Kay Ryan
A too closely watched flower/blossoms the wrong color./ Excess attention...
A too closely watched flower/blossoms the wrong color./ Excess attention...
A too closely watched flower/blossoms the wrong color./ Excess attention...
A too closely watched flower/blossoms the wrong color./ Excess attention...
About This Quote

This quote is from a poem called “A Flower” by Edward FitzGerald. In this poem, the speaker is talking about a flower that gets too much attention. The flower ends up being a disappointment to the gardener because of how it doesn’t look like a flower at all. It looks too ordinary and no one would have noticed it if it hadn’t been so closely watched. The poet also calls attention to the fact that flowers tend to bloom in their own time and when they need to be in their prime like the jonquil, which he compares with gentian, which is a purple colored flower.

Some Similar Quotes
  1. You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection - Sharon Salzberg
  2. I read once that the ancient Egyptians had fifty words for sand & the Eskimos had a hundred words for snow. I wish I had a thousand words for love, but all that comes to mind is the way you move against me while you... - Brian Andreas
  3. Romance is the glamour which turns the dust of everyday life into a golden haze. - Elinor Glyn
  4. You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person is not to be found anywhere. You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and... - Sharon Salzberg
  5. I've been in love before, it's like a narcotic. At first it brings the euphoria of complete surrender. The next day you want more. You're not addicted yet, but you like the sensation, and you think you can still control things. <span style="margin:15px; display:block"></span>You think... - Paulo Coelho
More Quotes By Kay Ryan
  1. It's important to have your private enjoyments because sometimes that's all we have.
  2. Failure: the renewable resource.
  3. Action creates/a taste/for itself.
  4. Not even waste/is inviolate./ The day misspent, /the love misplaced, /has inside it/the seed of redemption./ Nothing is exempt from resurrection.
  5. Gaps don't/just happen./ There is a/generative element/inside them, /a welling motion/as when cold/waters shoulder/up through/warmer oceans./ And where gaps/choose to widen, /coordinates warp, /even in places/constant since/the oldest maps.
Related Topics