Emily Dickinson

Perhaps You’d Like to Buy a Flower

poem 134

Perhaps You’d Like to Buy a Flower - meaning Summary

Temporary Generosity Until Spring

The speaker offers a tentative gift — a flower she will lend but not sell — setting a strict time limit tied to seasonal change. The poem frames generosity as conditional and temporary: she will allow borrowing only until the daffodil blooms and bees gather nectar, after which the offer ends. The tone is plain but decisive, linking human boundaries to natural rhythms and the arrival of spring.

Read Complete Analyses

Perhaps you’d like to buy a flower, But I could never sell If you would like to borrow, Until the Daffodil Unties her yellow Bonnet Beneath the village door, Until the Bees, from Clover rows Their Hock, and Sherry, draw, Why, I will lend until just then, But not an hour more!

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