Here's the Blake Poem from Songs of Innocence and Experience that Jonathan Dove sets in the fifth movement of his choral cycle, The Passing of the Year:
Ah, Sun-flower! 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 Sun-flower wishes to go.
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I was curious about the poem, especially the reference to the "pale Virgin" and the "Youth" pining away with desire. With a little googling, I found the mythological story of Clytie, who was transformed into a sunflower after falling in love with the sun god, Apollo. Much of the imagery of Blake's poem refers to the Ovid story. Here's the story of Clytie from Ovid's Metamorphosis, translated by Lawrence Eusden:
Clytie was enamoured of Apollo, but unable to touch the heart of the deity, she pined away with grief, and was changed into a Helotrope, (or Sunflower,) which still turned its head towards the sun, in token of her love.
Now scornful Phoebus from fair Clytie flies,
Nor listens to the maiden's mournful sighs;
All day, all night, in trackless wilds alone
She pined, and taught the listening rocks her moan.
on the cold earth she lies, her bosom bare,
Loose her attire, dishevell'd is her hair.
Nine times the morn unbarr'd the gates of light,
As oft were spread the alternate shades of night;
So long no sustenance the mourner knew,
Unless she drank her tears or pearly dew.
She turn'd about, but rose not from the ground,
Turn'd to the sun still as he roll'd his round;
on his bright face hung her desiring eyes,
Till, fix'd to earth, she strove in vain to rise;
Her looks their paleness in a flower retain'd,
But here and there some purple streaks they gain'd.
Still the loved object the fond leaves pursue,
Still move their root the moving sun to view,
And in the Heliotrope the nymph is true.
