"Patterns" by Amy Lowell

Term Paper # 100601

English > Analysis
Literature > American
Literature > Poetry

This paper analyzes the poem "Patterns" by Amy Lowell, which illuminates a woman's search to find personal freedom and dignity under the patriarchal conditions of the 1940s and 50s.

1,325 words () | 0 sources | 2005 United States

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that the poem "Patterns" by Amy Lowell is written in the first person with a nameless narrator presenting her reaction to the death of her lover. The author points out that, instead having this protagonist screaming and crying, Lowell creates a woman trying to keep the appearance of being calm thus creating a very dynamic character who is at war with herself as well as with society's expectations. The paper states that there is no particular meter in the poem and the lengths of lines vary greatly with some lines having as many as five times as many syllables as the line that follows them. The author concludes that the poem is told in such an intimate way with such variation in form that the reader can't help but appreciate all the ways that a pattern can be a prison.

From the Paper:

"There are obviously feminist issues within this poem, because the narrator is a woman during an era of patriarchy. The poem also seems to pose questions about what it means to be feminine. In the Victorian age, the "feminine" physique was an hourglass figure, exaggerated - and sometimes created by - whalebone corsets and stiff fabrics such as brocade. The speaker describes wearing an outfit that causes her to have difficulty breathing, and high-heeled shoes that she is "tripping" in, rather than walking comfortably."