Ah! Sun-flower is an enigmatic, complex poem from William Blake’s Songs of Experience.  Songs of Experience (1799) was published as a response to Songs of Innocence (1794), exploring the differences between the innocence and in a sense, the culpability of losing that innocence.  Ah! Sun-flower is short, composed of 8 lines in two quatrains and was published on an illuminated page between two other botanical poems, My Pretty Rose Tree and The Lilly.

                Ah, Sun-Flower! weary of time,

                Who countest the steps of the Sun,

                Seeking after that sweet golden clime,

                Where the traveller’s journey is done:

                Where the Youth pined away with desire,

                And the pale Virgin shrouded in snow,

                Arise from their graves and aspire

                Where my Sun-flower wishes to go.

Despite its brevity, it is not a simple poem. Blake may have alternated including Ah! Sun-flower between Innocence and Experience. The symbolism is open to interpretation, but themes addressing the loss of innocence, corruption of love, and discontent with the passage of time are prominent in this poem.

Prominent British composers have set this poem several times to music in the mid-20th century. Ralph Vaughan Williams included Ah! Sun-flower in his song cycle, 10 Blake Songs (1957) for tenor and oboe. There is a playful element in the discourse between tenor and oboe, hinting towards the alternation of the poem between Innocence and Experience.  Benjamin Britten also used Ah! Sun-flower in his piece for baritone and piano, Songs and Proverbs of William Blake (1965).  Britten’s setting of Ah! Sun-flower is much more somber, focusing on the sense of lost and wasted time.

Vaughan Williams, Ah! Sun-flower from 10 Blake Songs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmTGMNJQNic

Britten, Ah! Sun-flower from Songs and Proverbs of William Blake

If you have access to the Naxos Music Library, check out this recording (P.S. You should listen to the whole cycle):

http://virginia.naxosmusiclibrary.com/catalogue/item.asp?cid=8.572600

or on Youtube, fast forward to around 7:30

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOK0iPyBXYE

--Luke Henry