Daisies of Florence
Daisies of Florence - Kathleen Raine
Daisies of Florence
Bambini picking daisies in the new spring grass
Of the Boboli gardens
Now and now and now in rosy-petalled fingers hold
The multitude of time.
To the limits of the small and fine florets innumerable of white and gold
They know their daisies real.
Botticelli with daisies from the timeless fields of recollection scatters
That bright Elysium or Paradise
Whose flowers none can gather,
Where spirits golden immortal walk for ever
With her who walks through spring after spring in primavera robed,
Ripening the transient under her veil.
from Collected Poems of Kathleen Raine (Golgonooza Press, 2002), copyright © Kathleeen Raine 2002, used by permission of the Estate of Kathleen Raine and the publisher.