Inscription surrounded by floral border: Dandelion: PD.8-1980.f.3

Materials used in production

Watercolour
Graphite

Components of the work

Support composed of paper
Leaf Height 326 mm Width 255 mm

Techniques used in production

Watercolour : Watercolour over graphite on paper

Inscription or legends present

• Text: 3
• Location: Recto, upper right
• Method of creation: Watercolour

Inscription present: appears in three columns, the first two parallel, and the third below; the breaks occur following: '...felon's grave?' and '...a mimic sun.'

• Text: Shun the waste, the common wood / Where the cottage-children sally: / Stalk, that snapped so musically, / Oozing thick with milky blood, / Solitude for thee were good. / Dandelion, dost thou crave / For some maiden breast to lie on, / Smiling, dying, dandelion, / Some soft hand to stoop & save, / Save thee from thy felon's grave? / Leave thy dreaming; Know that eyes / Sad as mine have wit to bless thee, / Though I bend not, nor caress thee, / He that sports with Passion dies, / Seal thy heart: be pure, be wise. / Dandelion, see thou shun / Hope of fickle adoration: / Crush thy larger aspiration. / Flaunt thee, till thy race be run. / Stare and glow, a mimic sun. / Blow thy feathered aureole; / Let the shadowy arrows quiver / Down the glade, across the river, / Then at eve, when flower-bells toll, / Then release thy dreaming soul. / Benson
• Location: Recto
• Method of creation: Watercolour

• Text: 4
• Location: Verso
• Method of creation: Watercolour

• Text: Dear common flower, that grow'st beside the way, / Fringing the dusty road with harmless gold, / First pledge of blithesome May, / Which children pluck, and, full of pride, uphold, / High-hearted buccaneers, o'erjoyed that they / An Eldorado in the grass have found, / Which not the rich earth's ample round / May match in wealth, - thou art more dear to me / Than all the prouder summer blooms may be. / Gold such as thine ne'er drew the Spanish prow / Through the primeval hush of Indian seas, / Nor wrinkled the lean brown / Of age, to rob the lover's heart of ease; / 'Tis the spring's largess, which she scatters now / To rich and poor alike, with lavish hand, / Though most hearts never understand / To take it at God's value, but pass by / The offered wealth with unrewarded eye / Lowell.
• Location: Verso
• Method of creation: Watercolour

Identification numbers

Accession number: PD.8-1980.f.3
Primary reference Number: 43855
Stable URI

Audit data

Created: Saturday 6 August 2011 Updated: Monday 3 August 2020 Last processed: Tuesday 13 June 2023

Associated departments & institutions

Owner or interested party: The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department: Paintings, Drawings and Prints