Ah! Sunflower | A poem by William Blake, 1794 + A song by The Fugs, 1965

Paul Caponigro, Back-lit sunflower, Connecticut, 1970

Ah! sunflower, weary of time,
Who countest the steps of the sun,
Seeking after that sweet golden clime
Where the traveller’s journey is done;

Where the youth pined away with desire,
And the pale virgin shrouded in snow,
Arise from their graves and aspire;
Where my sunflower wishes to go.

William Blake, 1794 

The Fugs, 1965

Ed Sanders set the poem to music and recorded it on The Village Fugs – Ballads
and Songs of Contemporary Protest, Points of View and General Dissatisfaction
in 1965

The Fugs – Ah, Sunflower Weary of Time – 1965

The Village Fugs, Ballads and Songs, 1965