The First Jasmines
The First Jasmines - meaning Summary
Childhood Scent and Memory
The poem is a gentle meditation on how a single childhood memory — holding the first white jasmines — endures above later pleasures. The speaker recalls sunlight, rivers, festivals and love, yet returns to that simple scent and touch as the sweetest, most formative experience. It frames nostalgia as persistent and selective: public joys and romantic tokens appear, but the poem privileges early sensory memory as the source of lasting emotional sweetness.
Read Complete AnalysesAh, these jasmines, these white jasmines! I seem to remember the first day when I filled my hands with these jasmines, these white jasmines. I have loved the sunlight, the sky and the green earth; I have heard the liquid murmur of the river through the darkness of midnight; Autumn sunsets have come to me at the bend of the road in the lonely waste, like a bride raising her veil to accept her lover. Yet my memory is still sweet with the first white jasmines that I held in my hands when I was a child. Many a glad day has come in my life, and I have laughed with merrymakers on festival nights. On grey mornings of rain I have crooned many an idle song. I have worn round my neck the evening wreath of Bakulas woven by the hand of love. Yet my heart is sweet with the memory of the first fresh jasmines that filled my hands when I was a child.
Feel free to be first to leave comment.