Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Sunflower (Helianthus)
Ah, Sunflower, weary of time,
Who countest the steps of the sun;
Seeking after that sweet golden clime,
Where the traveller’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!
William Blake—The Sunflower.
Light-enchanted sunflower, thou
Who gazest ever true and tender
On the sun’s revolving splendour.
Calderon—Magico Prodigioso. Sc. 3. Shelley’s trans.
Restless sunflower; cease to move.
Calderon—Magico Prodigioso. Sc. 3. Shelley’s trans.
The Sunflow’r, 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—Of Plants. Bk. IV. Of Flowers. The Poppy. L. 102.
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.
Erasmus Darwin—Loves of the Plants. Canto I. L. 225.
Space for the sunflower, bright with yellow glow,
To court the sky.
Caroline Gilman—To the Ursulines.
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 fix’d on earth, in darkness rooted there,
Light is thy element, thy dwelling air,
Thy prospect heaven.
Montgomery—The Sunflower.
As the sunflower turns on her god when he sets,
The same look which she turn’d when he rose.
Moore—Believe Me, if all Those Endearing Young Charms.
But one, the lofty follower of the Sun,
Sad when he sets, shuts up her yellow leaves
Drooping all night; and, when he warm returns,
Points her enamoured bosom to his ray.
Thomson—The Seasons. Summer. L. 216.