Amy Lowells Patterns Essay Example For Students

Amy Lowells Patterns Essay On the outside, the speaker in Amy Lowells Patterns acts the way Victorian society expects of her. However, on the inside, she expresses her emotions and what she truly feels. The speaker is confined to each button, hook, and lace of societys values. When confronted with an emotional situation, she bottles her feelings and only confesses them to herself. The patterns serve as guidelines for the speakers life. The speaker is constantly bombarded by what Victorian society expects of her. Her stiff, brocaded gown serves as a stand to hold her up. Without it, she would crumble with emotion. She mustnt show any form of feeling, so she feels as if there is not a softness anywhere about her. Confined by whalebone and brocade, the speaker continues to live up to the expectations society enforces upon her. While she remains guarded from embrace by her gown, she contains emotions that she knows she cant express. Doing so would brand her improper. Once the speaker comes to terms with the bestowed values of society, she becomes overwhelmed with the news of her fiancÃÆ' ©es demise. However, she does not express her depression or sadness. Instead she keeps her feelings hidden because she knows that behavior is expected of her. She even makes sure that the messenger takes some refreshment when the news is delivered to her. The only time the speaker confesses her feelings is when she is alone. She shows emotions such as passion when she fantasizes about her lover, who causes her to feel aching, melting, unafraid. She does this as she sits by herself in the shade of a lime tree, while her passion wars against the stiff brocade. Throughout the poem, patterns govern the speakers life. The path that she walks down at the start of the poem is a pattern. After her fiancÃÆ' ©e perishes she says that she will continue to walk up and down the path, as if she will remain without love for the duration of her life. The gown is also a pattern. It confines the woman, blending her into the rest of society, as patterns do. The speaker says that with her powdered hair and jeweled fan, she too is a rare pattern. When the speaker is alone, she separates herself from the rest of society by showing her emotions. However, when she is in public she blends in with the rest. As the speaker walks down the garden-paths, she notices how beautiful nature is. But, then she realizes that she cannot enjoy the world around her because she is confined to her stiff gown. Even though she would like to see it lying in a heap upon the ground, she knows she cannot indulge such fantasies. Fantasies are the only way for her to truly express herself, like when she feels such great passion and desire for her lover. Patterns make up the structure of the speakers life. After finding out about her fiancÃÆ' ©e she feels she has been pushed by Victorian  society to such an extreme as to ask herself the question, What are patterns for?