“Ah, sunflower, weary of time” begins the poem by which English Romantic era author?

“Ah Sunflower, weary of time, Who countest the steps of the sun” begins the poem titled “Ah Sunflower” by the Romantic era poet William Blake (1757-1827). This poem is included in his poetry collection called “Songs of Experience”. Consisting of only 8 lines in two quatrains (a type of of stanza) these poems were published in 1794.

William Blake was a poet, painter and printmaker. In fact, Blake did an engraving of this poem and the copy is currently held by the Fitzwilliam Museum, an art and antiquities museum of the University of Cambridge.

Multiple interpretations and commentaries have been written about the themes of Blake’s poem suggesting considerable ambiguity and competing interpretations evoking controversy. Examples include the notion that the sunflower itself is a literary symbol representative of a “fallen” human; or a persistent love that returns day by day just like the sunflower that directionally turns to the sun; or maybe the sunflower represents a frustrated love; or lost innocence; or a spiritual yearning; or a combination of any of these themes.

Blake was largely unrecognized during his lifetime but in 2002 he was placed at number 38 in the British Broadcasting Corporation’s poll of The 100 Greatest Britons. Some of his contemporaries considered him mad due to his idiosyncratic views but later critics held him in high regard for his expressiveness and creativity and for the philosophical and mystical undercurrents within his writings.