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Sunflower Poems

Table of Contents

Three Sunflowers
Three Sunflowers
by Vincent Van Gogh
  1. The Soul of the Sunflower by Sara Jewett
  2. Sun Flowers by Hilda Conkling
  3. Sunflowers by Lottie Brown Allen
  4. Serenade of the Sunflowers by Harry Edward Mills
  5. An Ode to the Kansas Sunflower by Ed Blair
  6. Ah! Sunflower! by William Blake
  7. To The Sunflower by Yone Noguchi
  8. The Sunflower by Dora Greenwell
  9. The Sunflower and the Pea by Arthur Sheldon Peacock

  1. The Soul of the Sunflower

    by Sara Jewett

    The warm sun kissed the earth
    To consecrate thy birth,
    And from his close embrace
    Thy radiant face
    Sprang into sight,
    A blossoming delight.

    Through the long summer days
    Thy lover's burning rays
    Shone hot upon thy heart.
    Thy life was part
    Of his desire,
    Thou passion-flower of fire!

    And, turning toward his love,
    Lifting thy head above
    The earth that nurtured thee,
    Thy majesty
    And stately mien
    Proclaims thee sun-crowned queen.

    On earth, thy gorgeous bloom
    Bears record of thy tomb,
    And to transcendent light
    Thy soul takes flight
    Till thou art one,
    O sunflower, with the sun!

  2. Sun Flowers

    by Hilda Conkling

    Sun-flowers, stop growing!
    If you touch the sky where those clouds are passing
    Like tufts of dandelion gone to seed,
    The sky will put you out!
    You know it is blue like the sea . . .
    Maybe it is wet, too!
    Your gold faces will be gone forever
    If you brush against that blue
    Ever so softly!

  3. Sunflowers

    by Lottie Brown Allen

    Up from the wayside damp and cold
    Cut of the early Kansas mold
    Blossomed the sunflowers, green and gold,

    Eastward turning at dawn’s first light
    Hourly drinking the sunbeams bright
    Westward waving a fond goodnight.

    Kissed by the sunshine and the dew
    Under the Kansas skies of blue
    Like unto sunflowers, the children grew.

    Bright eyes greeting the sun’s first ray
    Small hands eager for work or play
    Young hearts singing the livelong day.

    Kansas sunflowers happy and free
    Men and women that grew to be
    Builders of Kansas destiny.

  4. Serenade of the Sunflowers

    by Harry Edward Mills

    We are the original settlers,
    And this is our commonwealth
    We ever shall claim
    Both the name
    And the fame
    Which the squatter has taken by stealth.

    We came with the elk and the cactus
    Not yet was the Indian here
    And still we remain
    Though the grain
    Of the plain
    Has banished the bison and deer.

    We never would yield to invasion,
    Though enemies thickened around.
    When corn, wheat and rye
    Raised their high
    Battle cry
    We laughed at their blusterous sound.

    We cheered when the plowman attacked us:
    His furrows we hailed with delight.
    Wherever he trod
    Every rod
    Of his sod
    We seized as a prize of the fight.

    The Sun is our gallant defender;
    We thrive in his furious glow
    Then withers the maize
    In the blaze
    Of his rays,
    But we only flourish and grow.

    They wanted a title for Kansas,
    A title resplendent and great
    A name
    That should shame
    Every claim
    To her fame
    So they called her the Sunflower State.

  5. An Ode to the Kansas Sunflower

    by Ed Blair

    Oh sunflower! The queen of all flowers,
    No other with you can compare,
    The roadside and fields are made golden
    Because of your bright presence there.
    Above all the weeds that surround you
    You raise to the sun your bright head,
    Embroidering beautiful landscapes
    Your absence would leave brown and dead.

    Oh queen of the September morning
    You watch for the first ray of sun,
    And salute the bright orb as it travels
    Till the bright day of autumn is done.
    Tho' sickles may slay in the pasture,
    And the plowman destroy in the field,
    Yet, still will the corners and by-ways
    The seed for the future years yield.

    Then, Sunflower, peep over the fences
    And cover the hillsides with gold,
    And out in the cornfields, if tempted,
    Again take thy claim as of old;
    Salute, too, and nod to the stranger,
    Who travels the dusty highway,
    He'll worship the sun crown you're wearing
    And love you for brightening his way.

    So, Sunflower, grow tall in the meadow
    And spread to the breezes your arms,
    No matter if some do molest you
    And try to destroy on the farms,
    Let thy stalk all the season still gather
    The sunbeams that come dancing by;
    And then in September unfold them
    To dazzle with splendor the eye.

  6. Ah! Sunflower!

    by William Blake

    Ah! Sunflower, weary of time,
    Who countest the steps of the sun,
    Seeking after that sweet golden clime
    Where the traveler's journey is done;
    Where the youth pined away with desire,
    And the pale virgin shrouded in snow,
    Arise from their graves, and aspire
    Where my sunflower wishes to go!

  7. To The Sunflower

    by Yone Noguchi

    Thou burstest from mood:
    How sad we have to cling to experience!
    Marvel of thy every atom burning of life,
    How fully thou livest!
    Didst thou ever think to turn to cold and shadow?
    Passionate liver of sunlight,
    Symbol of youth and pride;
    Thou art a lyric of thy soaring colour;
    Thy voicelessness of song is action.
    What absorption of thy life's meaning.
    Wonder of thy consciousness,—
    Mighty sense of thy existence!

  8. The Sunflower

    by Dora Greenwell

    Till the slow daylight pale,
    A willing slave, fast bound to one above,
    I wait; he seems to speed, and change, and fail;
    I know he will not move.

    I lift my golden orb
    To his, unsmitten when the roses die,
    And in my broad and burning disk absorb
    The splendors of his eye.

    His eye is like a clear
    Keen flame that searches through me; I must droop
    Upon my stalk, I cannot reach his sphere;
    To mine he cannot stoop.

    I win not my desire,
    And yet I fail not of my guerdon, lo!
    A thousand flickering darts and tongues of fire
    Around me spread and glow;

    All rayed and crowned, I miss
    No queenly state until the summer wane,
    The hours flit by; none knoweth of my bliss,
    And none has guessed my pain;

    I follow one above,
    I track the shadow of his steps, I grow
    Most like to him I love
    Of all that shines below.

  9. The Sunflower and the Pea

    by Arthur Sheldon Peacock

    Good Kansans all, of every sort,
    Come join with me in song;
    And if we find the meter short
    We cannot sing it long.

    We'll sing the praise of prairie plants
    That grow our fields among,
    And here relate the circumstance
    And burden of our song:

    Ould Ireland has her shamrock green
    And praties fine galore,
    Auld Scotia has her thistle keen
    Aboon the Solway shore;

    The Bay state has her brown-baked bean
    In Boston by the sea—
    But Kansas boasts her sunflower's sheen
    And eke the black-eyed pea.

    The sunflower grows so very tall
    And branches out so free;
    That where there's nothing else at all
    It seems quite like a tree.

    'Twas one of these Sir Francis climbed
    And filled his heart with pride,
    As peeping o'er Sierra's crest
    Pacific first descried.

    The sunflower's good as any wood
    That grows upon the plain;
    'Tis proof to drouth or winds of south,
    And seldom hurt by rain.

    The black-eyed pea is victual good,
    And here we all agree,
    The Kansan eats no other food—
    When nothing else has he.

    Then join with me the glad refrain
    And sing it full and free;
    Without her patron flower and grain
    What would this country be?


Miles and miles of golden green
Where the sunflowers blow
In a solid glow.

– Robert Browning

The sunflower turns on her god when he sets,
The same look which she turned when he rose.

– Thomas Moore

The sunflower, thinking 'twas for him foul shame
To nap by daylight, strove t'excuse the blame;
It was not sleep that made him nod, he said,
But too great weight and largeness of his head.

– Cowley

With zealous step he climbs the upland lawn,
And bows in homage to the rising dawn;
Imbibes with eagle eye the golden ray,
And watches as it moves the orb of day.

– Darwin

Unloved the sunflower, shining fair,
Ray round with flowers her disk of seed.

– Tennyson

Eagle of flowers! I see thee stand,
And on the sun's noon-glory gaze;
With eye like his, thy lids expand,
And fringe their disk with golden rays;
Though fixed on earth, in darkness rooted there,
Light is thy element, thy dwelling air,
Thy prospect heaven.

– Montgomery

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