The Force That Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower
The Force That Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower - meaning Summary
Unity of Life and Decay
The poem presents a single vital force that both animates and destroys: the same power that makes flowers grow also ages and dissolves the speaker. Natural images—flowers, water, wind, roots—mirror bodily processes, so life and death are inseparable. Repeated refusal—"I am dumb"—signals the speaker’s inability to fully express or alter this cycle. The poem meditates on mortality, the unity of organic change, and the helplessness of human voice against time.
Read Complete AnalysesThe force that through the green fuse drives the flower Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees Is my destroyer. And I am dumb to tell the crooked rose My youth is bent by the same wintry fever. The force that drives the water through the rocks Drives my red blood; that dries the mouthing streams Turns mine to wax. And I am dumb to mouth unto my veins How at the mountain spring the same mouth sucks. The hand that whirls the water in the pool Stirs the quicksand; that ropes the blowing wind Hauls my shroud sail. And I am dumb to tell the hanging man How of my clay is made the hangman's lime. The lips of time leech to the fountain head; Love drips and gathers, but the fallen blood Shall calm her sores. And I am dumb to tell a weather's wind How time has ticked a heaven round the stars. And I am dumb to tell the lover's tomb How at my sheet goes the same crooked worm.
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