Emily Howell
Dr. Harwell
English Comp
February 25, 2013
Patterns
Amy Lowell is an American poet who creates images for the readers to create the big picture for them. She sets the image back in the Victorian era for women and how restricted their lives really were back then. After reading this poem it reveals how women were just expected to sit around and wait while their husbands, fiancés, boyfriends, fathers, and brothers were gone away at war. As a modern day feminist reader we break down this poem and we see who the warriors were behind that pretty, delicate face and how they defended the homeland not only from the kitchen but how they had to deal with their loved one being overseas. As a woman back in this time you were expected to act a certain way in public, dress to your social status and be a lady. If any of these rules were broken you would have to accept the punishment by the man who was over you. It could even be your father or brother if you were not married. Men were superior in this world during that day and age and if you did not obey your man you would suffer the consequences. Even in the extreme heat women were to wear five or more articles of clothing starting with the corset, underskirt, hoop skirt, vest, and the collar and some women even were known to faint due to the lack of oxygen they could get while wearing this dress. At the beginning of the poem the young girl is dreaming about her wedding day, she has every detail down to point. She describes the flowers on the trees blooming and the flowers on the ground and even how the sunlight is shining down on her face. The girl explains to us about the pink and silver train that flows behind her on the gravel path as she walks down the aisle to marry the love of her life. Every detail is in place from her powdered hair and face down to the high heeled ribbon shoes that she is wearing, and how her dress is exquisite and very fashion forward. Also in her dream, she is talking about the lime-tree that her and her soon to be husband will marry under.
The thoughts on how after they share their vows and become husband and wife are expressed, as they are running through the garden paths and playing with each other and how he stroked her gently and the reader truly can see the love between the two young people. Then in her dream he is chasing her in a playful manor and he is in a drunken stupor and eventually he catches her in the shade trees. ”And the buttons on his waistcoat bruised my body as he clasped me, aching, melting, and unafraid.”(51-53) After they make love for the first time she describes that she is his whole world and nothing else matters to him for the rest of the day.
Next something very traumatic happens to her, one month before she is to wed the man of her dreams she is given a letter by Duke. A rider came to her and informed her about her beloved being killed in action on the battle field. And as women were told to hide their emotions she stood up strong like the blue and yellow flowers along the paths. She walks up and down the path alone, until she reaches the lime tree to where she was going to become a young married woman as she beings to weep for her lover has passed away and will not return. The young girl grieves over the loss of the man she loves she does not understand why the patterns of life occur. Men were forced at war, women were forced to be beautiful, and all her and her lover wanted were