Shelley's Poem – The Flower that Smiles Today

I was in my high school when I came across this poem by P.B.Shelley. It was the time when I was gloomy, sad, and missing the joy of living a free life. This poem added to my gloom, and for long the opening line remained fresh with me. It left some impression on me. It was only recently that I tried to see it in an optimistic sense – let's learn from the flowers. Their life is short, but they spread so much joy around them. We should live like them.

I read the poem again today. The poet himself really feels the same, and the poem tapers to an optimistic note with a strange, macabre ending – enjoy the delights, then wake up to weep.

The poem begins with the flower analogy – a very terse statement that says the flower that smiles today dies tomorrow. The delights of this world are tempting but momentary. They do not last long. Consider lightening – it delights us, but look at how brief it is, and how it seems to mock the sky with its sudden, bright onset and decay.

What we cherish in life – love, friendship, virtue – all are victims of their transitory nature. Love submits to pride, friendship to its rarity, and virtue to human weaknesses.

The following three lines are a bit vague – they seem to say something like we ought to survive the fall of these virtues.

The optimistic note soon takes over. Let us enjoy the brief moments, when flowers spread their joy, and the skies are blue and clear, and the lover's eye radiates love.

Yet all this is transitory, and there seems to be no better choice than to preserve our beliefs, even though they may not last very long, like a dream. The end result would of course be the eventual waking up and realizing the true and transitory nature of this world.

I would only point out one possibility. Do we really feel sad that the pleasures did not last long? Let's take our childhood. We all cherish those wild and free moments. Yet there is never any real pain in having come out of that stage. If we enjoy the delights with true meaning, the end need not be a waking up to harsh reality. It may fill us with a warm, sweet feeling of having had good times, and having lived a good life.