Blue Hyacinths by Adelaide Crapsey captures the fragile beauty and fleeting nature of life through the image of delicate blue flowers. Known for her pioneering use of the cinquain form, Crapsey’s poem is marked by its precise, evocative language and sharp imagery. It reflects her deep awareness of mortality, a theme often present in her work as she struggled with terminal illness. The poem’s sparse, controlled structure mirrors the brief yet intense life of the hyacinths, creating a poignant meditation on the passage of time and the impermanence of beauty.
Blue Hyacinths by Adelaide Crapsey
In your
Curled petals what ghosts
Of blue headlands and seas,
What perfumed immortal breath sighing
Of Greece.
