Poetrybounding: How You Should Dress Based on Marjorie Pickthall’s "Daisy Time"

Style-based poetry is an experiment. This post is the fourth installment of an interpretative and opinion-based series, and therefore should be read as an entertaining thought exercise. However, if after peering through this post, you find yourself interested in replicating the outfit I will outline or having a go at poetrybouding other poems, thank you for finding my ideas worthwhile.

So, if you are new to the series, style-based poetry is the culmination of connecting fashion with the eponymous literary form. Fashion is a form of visual expression that, in one way or another, conveys a particular image about the wearer, and poetry is the ultimate medium of raw emotional expression through words. However, because a poem is usually bound to pen, paper, and voice, several constraints prevent it from becoming more than feelings made into words made into feelings once more. Thus, because fashion shares a similar effect with poetry regarding personal expression, the former’s visual power has the potential to push the latter into new territories to transmit emotions through stylish conceptualized images represented as clothing. And if you are already a follower of poetrybouding, welcome back!

Daisy Time by Marjorie Pickthall is a romanticist poem that conveys the freshness and bliss of spring with highly evocative imagery of nature through flowers. It is not a difficult piece to comprehend, and its message of nature’s power to provide wonderment and elation is more steeped in a dream-like quality with singing winds and dancing daisies. Still, I believe that a little fantasy is necessary for people’s mental well being after a year of a “dwindling” yet still on-going and dangerous pandemic, especially when the heat of spring is soon arriving to melt the snow and revitalize those that were affected by the frost of winter. The poem even reads like a song, with its three stanzas all having the ABCB rhyme scheme and with lines intercalating between 7 and 6 syllables, something that provides Daisy Time with a heartwarming and silly tone that invites people not to take themselves very seriously sometimes and praise those that surround them.

Here is Daisy Time:

“See, the grass is full of stars,
Fallen in their brightness;
Hearts they have of shining gold,
Rays of shining whiteness.

Buttercups have honeyed hearts,
Bees they love the clover,
But I love the daisies’ dance
All the meadow over.

Blow, O blow, you happy winds,
Singing summer’s praises,
Up the field and down the field
A-dancing with the daisies.”

— https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44866/daisy-time

The poem focuses its first stanza in painting a picture of daisies as beacons of light in the grass. The metonymy of stars grants this family of flowers a quality of celestial proportions, hyperbolizing its appearance as simple white and yellow flowers into stars with golden cores and white rays of light. The figurative language applied in the first stanza mystifies daisies and depicts them as beings of influence that stand out from the uniform green grass. The sun and the stars were seen as gods by many civilizations, so comparing these flowers to the utmost natural power using a color representing wealth makes them objects of prestige. Moreover, to have a heart of gold is a metaphor for an individual that is courageous and kind. That comes to show that Pickthall is arguing for the idea that daisies have the vigor and attractiveness to entice people, grabbing their attention and influencing their emotions, but also that they are kind-hearted at that.

The second stanza is a comparison between daisies and other flowers in the eyes of the lyrical persona. From the first stanza, it is apparent that the daisies enthrall them. The line “Buttercups have honeyed hearts” provides a fitting choice of words as honeyed means both covered in a honey color, a reference to buttercup’s yellow-orange hue, but also sweet and flattering, a prosopopeia that signals to the flower’s personality as sweet like honey. For the lyrical person, buttercups represent kindness. The line “Bees they love the clover” then personifies the bee to describe the clover by proxy. It grants an active quality to the clover by attracting bees with its scent and vivid purple-pink colors in a symbiotic relationship. Pickthall writes “bee” in its plural form while writing “clover” as a singular unit, pointing to the flower’s dominant nature over the bees, being sought after by the insect. Thus, clovers represent allure and desire for the lyrical persona, but because the flower also represents luck, such wanting could be related to a wish for prosperity to bring good feelings. However, when the subject mentions in the following lines that they love the dance of daisies, they are not speaking of a general attribute but what enthralls them about this family of flowers. It is no longer about how a flower looks or who likes them, but that the lyrical persona loves daisies (as also written in the first stanza), which becomes more relevant than the other species.

Finally, the third stanza depicts nature as kinetic art through a dreamy and whimsical pathetic fallacy where the wind’s movements sound like a song of warmth and the daisies dance to such melody, a direct allusion to feelings of joy and peace a person may feel while in a field of daisies sensing the warm (summer) breeze touching the skin. It is a hidden element of Daisy Time, but because the lyrical person says “See” in the first line of the poem, they directly interact with the audience while also signaling us to visualize the physical meadow, which points out to the idea that such field exists and that the lyrical person has been there. So, recapitulating the importance of daisies in the poem, these flowers are paragons of prestige, allure, and kindness, topping such qualities of other species, and when daisy’s rays of white and heart of gold move with the warm wind, their bodies appear to dance because of the way their appearance affects how the lyrical persona perceives them. And as such, the dance is depicted as magical and fantastic to mesmerize audiences into seeing nature as a constant that brings elation to those that contemplate it.

Now, you may be imagining that I would build an outfit solely based on the daisy motif, with gold, white, pink, and yellow hues all around daisy patterns. That is a fair idea and if you want to outfit yourself with these regal and happy colors, suit yourself because it can look amazing. Or it can look silly and fun, like the RIPNDIP Daisy Daze collection for men and women. But I want to explore the whole poem and how other aspects of it, like the bees and the other flowers, can serve as supporting actors to a central daisy motif to form a caricature of spring both in appearance and general vibe.

In that venture, I found myself drawn towards the clover flower color. The purple-pink hue is perfect when looking at an outfit made mostly of a yellow complementary tone, especially in a season when most flowers with the brightest and boldest of colors bloom again. In general, the colors featured in the poem include golden, white, buttercup yellow, and clover purple-pink (the green of the four-leafed clover will make the outfit look like Brazil’s flag, and the cloverleaf does not represent a flower). Colors, however, are not the only important aspect of Daisy Time that can depict its joyful whimsicality and represent spring in a wholesome way. The bees are quintessential aspects of the season as they pollinate the blooming flower, and the four-leafed clover is still a striking image that can be depicted in the outfit in a novel way (I will get to that). Moreover, as mentioned before, the floral daisy pattern is the most significant aspect of the piece, its prima donna, and because the dance of the daisies is an essential motif to Daisy Time as a way to convey the elation that spring begets, I need to depict this dance in my outfit creation. A dress does that superbly, as it can be flowy in the wind to resemble a harmonious, choreographed movement.

Above is an image that depicts what I think is a suitable example of a white and golden daisy dress. It is lowkey, loose in the arms, and fresh, but it also doesn’t have a big skirt, making it perfect for any moment in the day, especially in a park or meadow of flowers. However, as seen above, if you do not like wearing dresses, I found a shirt with the daisy motif with loose balloon sleeves that can also interact with the wind subtly and fittingly to the poem. And if you are planning on ever making this outfit and chose to wear the daisy shirt, I found an almost muted, very appropriate set of pants that feature buttercups in a combination of yellow and orange. These flowers are relatively uncommon when it comes to clothing, so wearing buttercup pants is a rare possible form of the outfit. Still, if you are not comfortable with this option, buttercup yellow pants are a more approachable and standard solution.

Speaking of buttercups, buttercup-colored shoes (mainly flats and broad heels) are my next suggestion for this poetrybouding outfit. It may sound cheesy, but kindness is the root of mutual elation; empathy is the grounds on which a fulfilling and loving relationship is based upon, so a shoe that, contextually speaking, portrays this idea as the clothing item that envelops the base of the body is suitable to the aesthetic power of what we are building. The images I use above represent one alternative of the many possible shoe styles in the buttercup hue. And the second secondary character in the look with the buttercups is the bee, but because of the insect’s more adjacent and supporting role as the pollinator (figurative joy spreader), I will not feature it prominently. I find insects/arachnids and jewelry a peculiar but stylish aesthetic combo, especially those that look either endearing (butterflies and bees) or fierce (scarabs, spiders, and scorpions) in jewelry form, so a simple honey bee or bumblebee bracelet suffices as this minor accessory with a fundamental yet hidden meaning. There are various bee bracelets out there with different qualities and metals (gold goes better with the yellow and golden aesthetic, but silver may combine with the next piece of jewelry), so this accessory is the easiest to find and style.

Finally, it is time to explore how I may tailor purple into the yellow/gold and white color palette of the outfit. Purple not only serves as a complementary color to the yellow/gold motif, but it appears in the form of clove flowers that, like buttercups and bees, work in a secondary role being a “character” of Daisy Time made to bolster the importance of daisies through comparison. Yet, clover’s allure and relationship with luck and prosperity, even if not part of the poem’s overall message, are intrinsic aspects of spring as a season of new beginnings and life born anew through vivid colors (the lively grass and tree greens, and of course, the blooming flowers). Therefore, an accessory fits the job description as a nonessential item that drives attention, but is there purple clover jewelry out there? It was challenging to find, but I managed to unveil a few purple clover bracelets and necklaces that anyone can wear in the look. The clover necklace below is not even close to being a must, but it still functions as a side character that can interact nicely with the bee bracelet; but again, jewelry can be worn in different places of the body, so styling the outfit, for example, with bee earrings and purple clover bracelets is open game.

However, purple still needs to be part of the outfit in the absence of jewelry (based on my interpretation), so a purple belt functions as the perfect midpiece that completes its palette. For the shirt and pants look, a normal-sized purple belt with golden or silver buckles serves as a bridge between the daisy shirt and the buttercup yellow pants. But for the dress look, I believe a skinny belt is more suitable because it reflects the delicacy of the dress. Purple is naturally eye-catching and bold as a royal color, which mirrors daisies’ depiction as regalia, but it may try to dominate the delicate dress with the powerful golden hue if featured prominently in a thick belt. A thin version provides a slight touch of purple to decorate, not conquer, the overall look.

In sum, the outfit I created encompasses clothing with daisy patterns in white and gold that interact with accessories in purple and golden and bottom pieces of buttercup yellow to build a picture of spring that conveys the ideas of boldness, joy, and a tad of whimsicality. For a spring pandemic look, this creation and its connection to Daisy Time brings a little fantasy and light into a time characterized by uncertainty and affliction, and adding a purple or yellow mask to it makes the outfit apt for the current environment. Still, I didn’t even go in-depth into what a more masculine version of the look could look like (maybe a more graphical daisy-pattern casual shirt with buttercup yellow pants and shoes, purple mask, and another purple accessory), which goes to show how many possibilities style-based poetry may present. In the end, a poem can be, and many times should be interpreted differently by each reader, so my guide is only a glimpse into the realm that connects both fashion and poetry.

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