The Pansy; The Chim‑pansy

Observe how Nature’s necromancies
Have clearly painted on the Pansies,
These almost human counten‑ances,
In yellow, blue and black nu‑ances.
The face however seems to me
To be that of the Chim‑pan‑zee:
A fact that makes the gentle Pansy,
Appeal no longer to my fancy.

Where this text comes from

First published in How to Tell the Birds from the Flowers and Other Woodcuts (1917). First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established. [1]

Structure read from the source's markup; the words have not been compared against a page scan. Last checked 2026-08-20.

Taken from Standard Ebooks, standardebooks/robert-williams-wood_how-to-tell-the-birds-from-the-flowers-and-other-woodcuts, how-to-tell-the-birds-from-the-flowers.xhtml. Rights: public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931).

Earlier sources (3)

This poem as JSON or plain text. Line anchors #L1–#L8.

Cite this poem

Robert Williams Wood (1868–1955). “The Pansy; The Chim‑pansy.” First published in How to Tell the Birds from the Flowers and Other Woodcuts (1917). Text: Poem Index, https://poemindex.org/robert-williams-wood/the-pansy-the-chim-pansy/. Append #L14 to cite line 14, or #L4-L9 for lines 4–9.

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