Interactive Literature Selections Patterns

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Patterns

Amy Lowell

During Reading Strategy
Fill in a Chart

Guided Reading Question 1
To what does the speaker compare herself?
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	I walk down the garden-paths,
	And all the daffodils
	Are blowing, and the bright blue squills.
	I walk down the patterned garden-paths
5	In my stiff, brocaded¹ gown.
	With my powdered hair and jeweled fan,
	I too am a rare
	Pattern. As I wander down
	The garden-paths.
10	My dress is richly figured²,
	And the train³
	Makes a pink and silver stain
	On the gravel, and the thrift
	Of the borders.

15	Just a plate of current fashion,
	Tripping by in high-heeled, ribboned shoes.
	Not a softness anywhere about me,
	Only whalebone⁴ and brocade.
	And I sink on a seat in the shade
20	Of a lime-tree. For my passion
	Wars against the stiff brocade.
	The daffodils and squills
	Flutter in the breeze
	As they please.
25	And I weep;
	For the lime-tree is in blossom
	And one small flower had dropped upon my bosom.

	And the plashing of waterdrops
	In the marble fountain
30	Comes down the garden-paths.
	The dripping never stops.
	Underneath my stiffened gown
	Is the softness of a woman bathing in a marble basin⁵,
	A basin in the midst of hedges grown
35	So thick, she cannot see her lover hiding,
	But she guesses he is near,
	And the sliding of the water
	Seems the stroking of a dear
	Hand upon her.

Guided Reading Question 2
What are some elements of the “current fashion”?
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Guided Reading Question 3
What conflict is occurring?
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40	What is Summer in a fine brocaded gown!
	I should like to see it lying in a heap upon the ground.
	All the pink and silver crumpled up on the ground.

	I would be the pink and silver as I ran along the paths,
	And he would stumble after,
45	Bewildered by my laughter.
	I should see the sun flashing from his sword hilt⁶ and the buckles on his shoes. I would choose
	To lead him in a maze along the patterned paths,
	A bright and laughing maze for my heavy-booted lover.
50	Till he caught me in the shade,
	And the buttons of his waistcoat bruised my body as he clasped me
	Aching, melting, unafraid.
	With the shadows of the leaves and the sundrops,
	And the plopping of the waterdrops,
55	All about us in the open afternoon—
	I am very like to swoon
	With the weight of this brocade,
	For the sun sifts through the shade.
	Underneath the fallen blossom

Guided Reading Question 4
What feeling does the speaker convey?
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60	In my bosom,
	Is a letter I have hid.
	It was brought to me this morning by a rider from the Duke⁷.
	“Madam, we regret to inform you that Lord Hartwell
	Died in action Thursday se’nnight.⁸”
65	As I read it in the white, morning sunlight,
	The letters squirmed like snakes.
	“Any answer, Madam,” said my footman.
	“No,” I told him.
	“See that the messenger takes some refreshment.
70	No, no answer.”
	And I walked into the garden,
	Up and down the patterned paths,
	In my stiff, correct brocade.
	The blue and yellow flowers stood up proudly in the sun,
75	Each one.
	I stood upright too,
	Held rigid to the pattern
	By the stiffness of my gown.
	Up and down I walked,
80	Up and down.

Guided Reading Question 5
What does the speaker have hidden?
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Guided Reading Question 6
What news has the speaker received?
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	In a month he would have been my husband.
	In a month, here, underneath this lime,
	We would have broke the pattern;
	He for me, and I for him,
85	He as Colonel, I as Lady,
	On this shady seat.
	He had a whim
	That sunlight carried blessing.
	And I answered, “It shall be as you have said.”
90	Now he is dead.

	In Summer and in Winter I shall walk
	Up and down
	The patterned garden-paths
	In my stiff, brocaded gown.
95	The squills and daffodils
	Will give place to pillared roses, and to asters, and to snow.
	I shall go
	Up and down,
	In my gown.
100	Gorgeously arrayed,
	Boned and stayed.
	And the softness of my body will be guarded from embrace
	By each button, hook, and lace.
	For the man who should loose me is dead,

Guided Reading Question 7
Who was Lord Hartwell?
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105	Fighting with the Duke in Flanders,
	In a pattern called a war.
	Christ! What are patterns for?

Guided Reading Question 8
What happened to Lord Hartwell?
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