Stanza 1
The opening stanza presents a white violet that is scented on its stalk, and is described as a "sea-violet." The speaker observes that it is "fragile as agate," which is a fine-grained stone, and that the sea violet is located amongst broken shells on a sand-bank by the ocean, facing the wind.
Stanza 2
The second stanza introduces new violets, which are described as "greater blue violets" whose petals "flutter" in the wind as they stand on a hillside. Despite describing these violets as "greater" two lines earlier, the speaker, repeating herself, asks the reader who would exchange a root of a white violet for many blue violets (the presumption being that she cannot imagine who would).
Stanza 3
In the final stanza, the speaker addresses a violet directly (clearly the sea-violet, because she notes its location on the edge of the "sand-hill"). She acknowledges that the violet's grip in the soil is "frail," which makes the violet precarious. However, she observes as well that the violet catches the light—having the effect of both frost, and a star that moves slightly with its fiery splendor.
