Patterns
September 5, 1985
A review of "Patterns" by Amy Lowell.
Copyright © 1997 Property of Deborah K. Fletcher. All rights reserved.
The uniquely sophisticated simplicity of description used in "Patterns" produces the effect of allowing the reader a realistic view of the poem's scenes. "... all the daffodils are blowing, and the bright blue squills..." is one of the most powerfully descriptive phrases in the entire poem for very reason of its simplicity.
Imagery is one of the strongest qualities of "Patterns." The description of a young woman walking through a garden produces a vivid picture. The reader can easily visualize rows of gold and azure flowers waving as banners in the breeze, edged with walks paved in flagstones. Ornamental fruit trees, clad in the glory of spring blossoms may be seen among the paths and garden beds. The gold-veined white marble of bench and fountain is seen to gleam in the afternoon sunlight. Even the sound of water in the fountain is as vividly realistic to the reader as if he is sitting beside it.
Imagery is a very important aspect of any poem. Without intense imagery in description, the poem becomes little more than a random collection of words. Amy Lowell has made exemplary use of imagery and description throughout "Patterns."
The word-play of poetry is greatly variable from poet to poet, and from poem to poem. The order of the phrases greatly affects the mood and cadence of the poem. The simplicity or complexity of vocabulary detemines the tone and the psychological effects of each phrase, individually and combined to form the whole.
Amy Lowell's use of the highly variable language of her poetry - the English language - brings every tear-filled phrase and fairytale line to the reader's immediate attention. Her manner of combining these phrases and lines gives "Patterns" a unique flavour: that of bitterness, mingled with beauty and joy. The beauty of "... a pink and silver stain on the gravel ..." contrasts movingly with "... that sunlight carried blessing.... Now he is dead."
The theme of "Patterns" is the pattern itself. Patterns are rigid and confining, if one is to take the wording of the poem quite literally. The pattern of life for an eighteenth century lady was rigid andconfining. Her spirit and freedom were imprisoned by the patterns of society as surely as by the patterns of "whalebone and brocade." Similarly, Amy Lowell has called attention to the irony of patterns by noting that war is a pattern, imprisoning a man even more certainly than a woman is imprisoned in her gown. The varying severity of these patterns is noted in the fact that the woman may be freed by removing the gown, while the man's freedom lies in death.
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