The American poet Li-Young Lee published "From Blossoms" in his 1986 collection, Rose. In the poem, the speaker revels in the simple yet ecstatic experience of eating peaches bought from a roadside stand. To the speaker, eating this ripe and delicious fruit is like biting into summer itself; for a moment, it's as if life is made purely of abundance and joy and "death" is practically unimaginable. The poem suggests the importance of enjoying life's pleasures whenever one has the chance, while also implying that such pleasures are all the more meaningful because they cannot last.

• Read the full text of “From Blossoms”

• “From Blossoms” Summary

• “From Blossoms” Themes

  • 

    Appreciating Life's Simple, Fleeting Pleasures

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-22

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “From Blossoms”

  • Lines 1-5

    From blossoms comes ...
    ... .

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 6-8

    From laden boughs, ...
    ... the roadside, succulent

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 9-10

    peaches we devour, ...
    ... dust we eat.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 11-14

    O, to take ...
    ... but the days,

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 14-16

    to hold ...
    ... jubilance of peach.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 17-22

    There are days ...
    ... sweet impossible blossom.

    

    

    

    

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• “From Blossoms” Symbols

  • 

    Blossoms

    Where this symbol appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-2: “From blossoms comes / this brown paper bag of peaches”
    • Lines 19-22: “from joy / to joy to joy, from wing to wing, / from blossom to blossom to / impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom.”
  • 

    Peaches

    Where this symbol appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-5: “From blossoms comes / this brown paper bag of peaches / we bought from the boy / at the bend in the road where we turned toward / signs painted  / Peaches / .”
    • Lines 9-10: “peaches we devour, dusty skin and all, / comes the familiar dust of summer, dust we eat.”
    • Lines 14-16: “to hold / the fruit in our hands, adore it, then bite into / the round jubilance of peach.”
  • 

    Dust

    Where this symbol appears in the poem:

    • Lines 9-10: “peaches we devour, dusty skin and all, / comes the familiar dust of summer, dust we eat.”

• “From Blossoms” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

  • Alliteration

    

    

    

    

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    Where alliteration appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “blossoms”
    • Line 2: “brown,” “paper,” “bag,” “peaches”
    • Line 3: “bought,” “boy”
    • Line 4: “bend,” “turned,” “toward”
    • Line 5: “painted,” “Peaches”
    • Line 9: “devour,” “dusty”
    • Line 13: “shade”
    • Line 14: “sugar,” “hold”
    • Line 15: “hands”
    • Line 17: “days”
    • Line 18: “death”

  • Consonance

    

    

    

    

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    Where consonance appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “From,” “blossoms,” “comes”
    • Line 2: “brown,” “paper,” “bag,” “peaches”
    • Line 3: “bought,” “boy”
    • Line 4: “bend,” “road,” “turned,” “toward”
    • Line 5: “painted,” “Peaches”
    • Line 8: “comes,” “nectar,” “roadside,” “succulent”
    • Line 9: “dusty,” “skin”
    • Line 10: “comes,” “familiar,” “dust,” “summer,” “dust,” “eat”
    • Line 13: “shade”
    • Line 14: “sugar,” “hold”
    • Line 15: “hands”
    • Line 17: “days”
    • Line 18: “death”
    • Line 22: “impossible blossom,” “sweet impossible blossom”

  • Enjambment

    

    

    

    

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    Where enjambment appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-2: “comes / this”
    • Lines 2-3: “peaches / we”
    • Lines 3-4: “boy / at”
    • Lines 4-5: “toward / signs”
    • Lines 8-9: “succulent / peaches”
    • Lines 12-13: “eat / not”
    • Lines 14-15: “hold / the”
    • Lines 15-16: “into / the”
    • Lines 17-18: “live / as”
    • Lines 18-19: “nowhere / in”
    • Lines 19-20: “joy / to”
    • Lines 21-22: “to / impossible”

  • Imagery

    

    

    

    

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    Where imagery appears in the poem:

    • Lines 2-5
    • Lines 6-10
    • Lines 12-16

  • Metaphor

    

    

    

    

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    Where metaphor appears in the poem:

    • Lines 12-14: “to carry within us an orchard, to eat / not only the skin, but the shade, / not only the sugar, but the days”

  • Anaphora

    

    

    

    

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    Where anaphora appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “From”
    • Line 6: “From,” “from”
    • Line 7: “from”
    • Line 8: “comes”
    • Line 10: “comes”
    • Line 11: “to”
    • Line 12: “to,” “to”
    • Line 13: “not only the,” “but the”
    • Line 14: “not only the,” “but the,” “to”
    • Line 19: “from”
    • Line 20: “from”
    • Line 21: “from”

  • Diacope

    

    

    

    

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    Where diacope appears in the poem:

    • Line 9: “dusty”
    • Line 10: “dust,” “dust”
    • Lines 19-20: “joy / to joy to joy”
    • Line 20: “wing to wing”
    • Lines 21-22: “blossom to blossom to / impossible blossom”
    • Line 22: “to,” “impossible blossom”

  • Asyndeton

    

    

    

    

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    Where asyndeton appears in the poem:

    • Lines 6-7: “From laden boughs, from hands, / from sweet fellowship in the bins,”
    • Lines 9-10: “dusty skin and all, / comes the familiar”
    • Line 10: “dust of summer, dust we eat”
    • Lines 11-12: “to take what we love inside, / to carry within us an orchard, to eat”
    • Lines 19-22: “from joy / to joy to joy, from wing to wing, / from blossom to blossom to / impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom.”

  • Allusion

    

    

    

    

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    Where allusion appears in the poem:

    • Line 10: “comes the familiar dust of summer, ,” “dust we eat”

• “From Blossoms” Vocabulary

  Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

  • Laden boughs
  • Fellowship
  • Nectar
  • Succulent
  • Jubilance
  • (Location in poem: Line 6: “From laden boughs”)

• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “From Blossoms”

  • Form

  • Meter

  • Rhyme Scheme

• “From Blossoms” Speaker

• “From Blossoms” Setting

• Literary and Historical Context of “From Blossoms”

• More “From Blossoms” Resources

  • External Resources

    • Lee's Life and Work — An introduction to the poet via the Poetry Foundation. 

    • A Reading of the Poem — A video recording of Lee reading his poem aloud.

    • "A Conversation of Poetry and Consciousness" — A 1995 interview between Lee and poet Michael Collier for The Writing Life about poetry, prayer, and the mind.

    • A Conversation With Li-Young Lee — An interview with the Los Angeles Review of Books in which Lee discusses how his first collection came about and the use of silence in his work.

  • LitCharts on Other Poems by Li-Young Lee

    • I Ask My Mother to Sing

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