Symbol Analysis
The dandelion is a sad symbol in this poem because it represents the illusion of love. More specifically, it appears when the lonely young man named Shawondasee thinks he sees a beautiful young woman hanging out in a meadow. He's too lazy to go talk to the woman, so he just comes to the meadow every day and watches her. But one day, the poem tells us "He beheld her yellow tresses/ Changed and covered o'er with/ whiteness,/ Covered as with whitest snowflakes" (2.304-2.307). The young woman's golden hair has turned to white, and Shawondasee takes this change as a sign that his brother has had sex with the woman. He gives up on love and spends the rest of his days in sadness.
If Shawondasee had been a bit bolder, he might have approached the beautiful young woman and realized that she was just a dandelion all along (hence the gold hair that turns to white fluff and blows away). As the narrator says, "Twas no woman you gazed at,/ Twas no maiden that you sighed for,/ Twas the prairie dandelion" (2.333-2.335). So, in the end, the dandelion symbolizes all of the experience that a young man can miss out on if he's unwilling to meet life head-on.
- Line 2.290: We don't know it's a dandelion yet, but Shawondasee first sees the dandelion in the prairie when he thinks he sees a beautiful young woman hanging out in the fields. He loves her immediately, but he's too lazy to go talk to her.
- Line 2.304: Shawondasee is heartbroken when he sees the woman's hair turned from yellow to white because he assumes that his brother from the North has left his mark on the girl.
- Line 335: The poem tells us that Shawondasee has actually fallen in love with a dandelion and that all of his heartbreak is for nothing. He'll never realize it though, because he's not bold enough to walk up to his sweetheart and realize she's just a flower.