Philip Freneau
The Wild Honeysuckle
野忍冬花
美好的花呀，你长得，这么秀丽，
却藏身在这僻静沉闷的地方-——
甜美的花儿开了却没人亲昵，
招展的小小枝梢也没人观赏；
没游来荡去的脚把你踩碎,
没东攀西摘的手来催你落泪。
大自然把你打扮得一身洁白，   
她叫你避开庸俗粗鄙的目光,
她布置下树荫把你护卫起来，
又让潺潺的柔波淌过你身旁；
  你的夏天就这样静静地消逝，
  这时候你日见萎蔫终将安息。
那些难免消逝的美使我销魂，
想起你未来的结局我就心疼，
别的那些花儿也不比你幸运-——
虽开放在伊甸园中也已凋零，
  无情的寒霜再加秋风的威力,
  会叫这花朵消失得一无踪迹。
朝阳和晚露当初曾把你养育，
花儿开了
让你这小小的生命来到世上，
原来若乌有，就没什么可失去，
因为你的死让你同先前一样;
  这来去之间不过是一个钟点-—-
  这就是脆弱的花享有的天年。
                    （黄皋炘  译）
Commentary
The short lyric was written in 1786。 Freneau was inspired by the beauty of the wild honey suckle when he was walking at Chaeleston， South Carolina. It was virtually unread in the poet's lifetime, yet it deserves a place among major English and American works of poetry of that time。 This is one of the most quoted works of Freneau。 Generally speaking, it is the best of Freneau’s poems, and the best poem on nature befor
e the appearance of the verses of William Cullen Bryant, William Wordsworth， and Ralph Waldo Emerson’s The Rhodora。 But unlike those early writers who turned to look for themes outside America， Freneau rooted his poem on this piece of land。 He is one of the few early writers who eulogize the country。
Before Freneau there had been some American poets who， however, wrote mostly on the religious theme and either in style or structurally they imitated English poets. Freneau， the first American-born poet， was one of the earliest who cast their eyes over the natural surroundings of the New Continent and American subject matter。
As is displayed in this poem， honeysuckle, instead of rose of daffodil became the object of depiction; it is “wild" just to convey the fresh perception of the natural scenes on the new continent。 The flowers, similar to the early Puritan settlers， used to believe they were the selects of God to be arranged on the abundant land, but now have to wake up from fantasy and be more respectful to natural law。 Time is constant but the time of a life is short; any favor is relative but change is absolute; with or without the awareness, na
ture develops； flowers were born， blossomed and declined to repose， and human beings would exist in exactly the same way。 A philosophical meditation is indicated by the description of the fate of a trivial wild plant。
A quintessentially Romantic poet, Freneau demonstrated the best of his poetic art in the melodious lyrics on Nature’s beauty。 In this short poem about a flower, the poet describes his thoughts over some much more grand topics including religion and life in general. The wild honey suckle is， in the poet’s eye， no longer a common flower. To some extent， Freneau's poem is a longer expounding of William Blake’s poem: “To see the world in a grain of sand,/And a heaven in a wild flower，/Hold infinity in the palm of your hand，/And eternity in an hour。”
In the first two stanzas, to start with， Freneau devoted more attention to the environment of the flower in which he found it than to the appearance of the flower per se. He commented on the secluded nature of the place where the honey suckle grew， drawing a conclusion that it was due to Nature’s protectiveness that the flower was able to lead a peaceful life free from men’s disturbance and destruction.
But the next stanza immediately changed the tone from silent admiration and appreciation to outright lamentation over the “future’s doom” of the flower -—— even Nature was unable to save the flower from its death. Actually no flower, or no living being, can escape。 Not even the flowers that used to bloom in Eden. Thus from the flower in nature the poet started to ponder over the fate of man, who was bound to fall from his innocence and suffer from the despair of death as the result to his exile from Paradise。 Just as kindly as nourished and protected the honey suckle in spring and summer, Nature will destroy ruthlessly the flower with its autumn and winter weapons.
Following the traditional European model, the lyric is written in regular 6-line tetrameter stanzas， rhyming “ababcc", and sounds just like music. But in order to accord with the change in tone and topic in Stanza 3， the rhythmic pattern is varied。 Different from the rest the poem which is written in smooth iambic tetrameter lines， the third line of the stanza ——- “They died” —-— begins with a “spondee” (two stressed beats in a row） and, after forcing the reader to pause （the dash）， continues in a highly irregular rhythm with an intensification of stressed beats. The purpose is obvious： the speaker wa
nts to drive the horrible message home， to let the reader feel the impact acutely。 But as we progress into the last stanza, when a more mature view of life and death is adopted， the rhythms are restored to the original regularity as the tone assumes a tempered serenity grown out of experience.
In this poem， the poet expresses a keen awareness of the loveliness and transience of nature。 It implies that life and death are inevitable law of nature. In addition， the poet writes with the strong implication that, though in the work no one is presented in person, human beings at times envy the flower. This is seen not because the “roving foot” would “crush”; nor that the “busy hand” would “provoke a tear”； nor because of the “vulgar eye”, but because of the fact that the human being has the ability to foresee his death。 Whereas， the flower， with its happy ignorance, lacks this consciousness and is completely unaware of its doom. Its innocence left it happier than the foreseeing human beings。 Unfortunately, the human beings are quite unwilling to refuse this knowledge and that arouses all their sufferings。