The Azaleas — Summary

In a blur of red and white blossoms, the speaker watches azaleas flare up, fade, and flare again, just as sun and clouds keep parting and meeting. Everything in the scene seems restless, alive, and passing. Then, among that shimmering color, he notices one flash that does not die: a woman’s face. The sight strikes him as perfectly beautiful, even idyllic, and his mood lifts suddenly—“Hey for my heart’s delight!” He asks whether she is waiting there for him, for his love and song, hidden among the azaleas. The poem creates a dreamy, longing mood, mixing the brief beauty of nature with the steadier pull of attraction and hope. The repetition of “red and white” and “die and burn and die again” gives it a musical, almost trancelike rhythm.