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The Wild Iris

communicate its experience. That voice appears in the form of a
SUMMARY “great fountain”—the iris’s gorgeous deep-blue flower—and in
the form of this very poem! Dying is what allows the iris to
When my suffering was over, I came to a door.
blossom again, and its blossoming is itself a “voice” of
Listen to me: I remember going through the experience you call consolation to people who haven’t yet died, assuring them that
"death." death is only one stage of life.
Up above me, I could hear little noises, like the sound of the The fear, darkness, and silence of death, this poem thus
pine trees moving in the wind. Then, there was nothing. Faint suggests, are just a prelude to a mysterious flowering, a stage
sunlight moved over the dried-out dirt. on the journey toward a beautiful resurrection. People, this iris
It's an awful thing to still be conscious while you're buried suggests, can thus meet “that which [they] fear” with patience
underground. and courage, knowing that the terrifying darkness of death (or
Then my suffering ended: the part of death you're afraid of, perhaps even the darkness of experiences that echo death, like
being speechless but still conscious, stopped all of a sudden. I a deep depression) is never permanent.
felt the tough ground around me starting to give, and I got the
impression that there were little birds moving around in the Where this theme appears in the poem:
nearby bushes. • Lines 1-23
Listen, you people who don't remember what it's like to come
back from the dead: I'm telling you, I could talk again. Whatever
comes back from death and nothingness discovers that it has a
new ability to speak.
LINE-BY
LINE-BY-LINE
-LINE ANAL
ANALYSIS
YSIS
From right at the heart of my being, a huge fountain-like LINES 1-4
blossom shot up: as richly blue as a shadow on the waters of At the end ...
the sea. ... I remember.
"The Wild Iris" begins with some bold claims, told in a
THEMES mysterious first-person voice: a voice that claims to have died,
and lived to tell the tale.
Not only has this speaker died and returned to life, they really,
DEATH, REBIRTH, AND
really want the reader to hear their story and to believe it.
TRANSFORMATION Listen to the urgency of the caesur
caesuraa and the enjambment in
In “The Wild Iris,” a personified iris assures its human lines 3-4:
readers that death isn’t the end of life: in fact, death is just a
step in a mysterious transformation. Recounting its own Hear me out: || that which you call death
experience of dying—and then being reborn with a whole new I remember.
“voice”—the iris discovers that, while death is frightening, it’s
also not infinite. In this poem, enduring the pain and fear of That mid-line colon feels insistent, asking the reader to stop
death is only the prelude to rebirth in a new and beautiful form. and really listen. Then, the enjambment sets off the strange
Recounting its own experiences death and resurrection, the iris idea that this speaker can "remember" their own death, giving
observes that “what you call death” isn’t an ending: it’s really this powerful declaration a whole line to itself.
only a dark passage that leads to “a door.” In dying, the iris Already, then, the reader has the sense that this speaker is
indeed encounters “nothing” and “oblivion,” but after it’s someone who's been through an astonishing experience. And
retborn, it can remember all that nothingness: its going through that experience has made them want to share it.
“consciousness” is never really gone, even when it’s buried, This speaker wants to be heard, to communicate a powerful
frightened and alone in the ground. Death, in this iris’s view, is message: death isn't the end.
really just a stage of life. It’s not an ending, but a process.
Take a look at the metaphor in the poem's very first lines:
And the process of death carries the iris through to a new life
with new powers. Having spent time in the “other world” of At the end of my suffering
death, the iris emerges with a new “voice”: an ability to there was a door
door.

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If there's a "door" at the end of suffering, then suffering itself "dark earth." This, the iris says, is just as "terrible" as one would
isn't an infinite void, or a devouring monster. Instead, it's expect.
something more like a dark hallway: a difficult passage to In other words: to this iris, encountering "nothing"—death
navigate, but still a passage, a thing that takes people from one itself—is, par
parado
adoxically
xically, something one suffers consciously.
place to another. Death, in the iris's experience, isn't just emptiness or void. It's a
And the way these two first stanzas mirror each other—each is void that one has to helplessly experience. That survival is
only two lines long, and each is a single enjambed "terrible" not just in the sense of "really unpleasant," but in the
sentence—suggests that the speaker's "suffering" and their sense of "inspiring terror and awe." It's a confrontation with
"death" are one and the same. Death isn't pure oblivion, but a something frightening beyond comprehension.
painful passage—a trial, not an ending. Around this point, the reader might begin to get the sense that
In other words: to this speaker, pain and death aren't terrible there's something metaphorical going on here. You don't have
and irreversible fates. They're part of an ongoing journey. to die to endure a seemingly endless nothingness: you need
only feel deep despair, an experience that plenty of people have
LINES 5-7 while they're very much alive.
Overhead, noises, branches ... Perhaps, then, this iris's experience isn't just about literal death.
... the dry surface. Perhaps it's about the kind of living death that plenty of people
In the third stanza, the reader starts to get the sense that this pass through: the kind of "dark" times that feel like they'll never
resurrected speaker is none other than the "Wild Iris" of the end.
title—a personified flower. The poem starts to look at the world But again, there's a swelling undercurrent of mysterious
from an iris's-eye view as the speaker recounts their own anticipation in these lines. The iris might have been "buried in
remembered death. the dark earth," but it also "survive[d]"—as those first lines of
Take a look at how readers get to experience the world from the poem insisted. Where there's survival, there's hope. And
the iris's perspective in line 5: flowers are an ancient symbol of just that: no matter how dark
the winter was, the flowers always come back in the spring.
Overhead, noises
noises, br
branches
anches of the pine shifting
shifting.
LINES 11-15
Here, the speaker notices the sounds of the "shifting" branches, Then it was ...
not of a pine tree, but of the pine tree—the one and only pine ... in low shrubs.
tree this speaker knows. This is a speaker who is firmly (and The iris's ordeal in the "dark earth" ends as suddenly as it
literally!) planted in one place. And it has a strong sensory began: all at once, it feels the "stiff earth" bending around it,
experience of that place: this line's seamless asyndeton
asyndeton, and the and can again perceive the world around it, noticing "birds
onomatopoeic sounds of "sh shift
fting," evoke the gentle, darting in low shrubs."
continuous shuffle of branches in the breeze.
Lines 5-15 form a chiasmus
chiasmus, repeating ideas in reverse. First,
But all that steady, vivid motion comes to a sudden end in the the iris notices the sounds and movements of nature around it
next line: all of a sudden, there's just "nothing." Or—not quite (line 5), then the "dry surface" of the earth (lines 6-7). It's
nothing! The speaker still has a sense of the "weak sun" as it trapped in the dark underground for a time (lines 8-9). Then it
flickers on the "dry surface" of the earth around it. But that emerges through that "stiff earth" (lines 13-14) and
weakness and dryness suggest that the iris is shrinking back, experiences the sounds and movements of nature again (lines
withering, and shriveling. 14-15)!
Even as the iris shrivels and fades to "nothing," though, the The shape of these ideas suggests that the whole process of
shape of the poem presents another take on the story. The first death and rebirth the iris has just endured is not a one-time
two stanzas were only two lines long; this stanza uses three thing, but a cycle, a rhythmic natural process that repeats and
lines. The iris might be fading, but something new is growing. repeats. The part that people are used to thinking of as the
There's an undercurrent of hope already perceptible in this hard end—death itself—is just a period of "surviv[al]" in the
free-v
free-verse
erse poem's changing shape. "dark earth," a waiting time.
LINES 8-10 What's more, it doesn't just apply to plants! Again, the iris
reaches out to the reader directly here:
It is terrible ...
... the dark earth.
Then it was over: that which you fear, being
In this stanza, the iris confronts a fear that feels deeply human: a soul and unable
the idea of being buried alive, helpless and "conscious[]" in the to speak, ending abruptly, [...]

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There's something telling in the iris's idea of "that which "Return[ing] from oblivion," this iris "finds a voice" with which it
[people] fear." "Being a soul and unable to speak," the iris can speak the words of this very poem.
suggests, is what's really terrifying about death—being a
conscious self, but not able to communicate. While that might LINES 21-23
be a broad human fear in general, it also sounds like a writer's from the center ...
fear in particular: it sounds here as if the iris might be speaking ... on azure seawater.
to the author of this poem as much as anyone. In the final stanza of this poem, the iris describes its new
Again, this hints that the death and rebirth here might be "voice": a voice that is a flower and a fountain all at once.
metaphorical as well as literal. Perhaps one feature of a writer's Take a look at the rich metaphor at the heart of these closing
darkest days is an inability to "speak" through poetry itself. And lines:
the idea of restored speech is only going to become more
important in the next stanza. from the center of my life came
a great fountain
fountain, deep blue
LINES 16-20
shadows on azure seawater.
You who do ...
... find a voice: On the one hand, this "great fountain" is just a lovely image of
In this stanza, the iris's voice becomes more and more an iris's petals
petals: deep blue on deeper blue, shooting up like jets
urgent—and makes bigger and bigger claims. Addressing the of water. But those petals are also the iris's voice. And now that
reader directly again, the iris speaks to "you who do not the iris is reborn, that voice is flowing freely.
remember / passage from the other world," a line that suggests Not only does the iris's voice run like a fountain, it seems to
that everyone has gone through a rebirth like the one the iris feed a whole ocean of "azure seawater"—an image that
has emerged from. This isn't just a flower thing, in other words: broadens far out from the iris's earlier little world of "the pine"
this is a process common to all life. And it's a process that it's and "birds darting in low shrubs." Now that it's been through its
apparently pretty easy to forget about after you've gone ordeal in the "dark earth," this iris seems to have found a voice
through it! as infinite and deep as the sea. And it comes right from the
This process also seems to be closely connected with the ability "center of [the iris's] life," the deepest place in its heart.
to "speak." Coming back from "oblivion," the iris declares, means This personified iris, then, is here to share a message of deep
finding a new "voice." hope, consolation, and joy with the "you" it so urgently speaks
Here again, there's a sense that this iris has something to say to to all through this poem. The fearful, claustrophobic darkness
people—like poets!—who especially long to communicate. A of death—or of despair that feels as deep as death—isn't an
deathly period of mute despair, this iris seems to say, doesn't ending, but part of a journey to a new life, richer than one can
mean losing one's voice forever, being trapped in eternal even imagine before one has passed through the darkness.
"oblivion." It means that one is heading toward a "door"—the (And perhaps this is especially true for the poet who wants to
threshold of a whole new way of speaking. That's pretty easy to give "voice" to the agony and beauty of this endless process.)
forget when one is "buried." But this iris's own urgent voice is Here at the end of the poem, changing stanza length gives
evidence of exactly the point it's making. readers another reminder that this cycle of death and
Take a look at the way this stanza supports those ideas resurrection just keeps going. Up until now, the stanzas have
organically with repetition and enjambments
enjambments: been steadily expanding, from two lines to three to five. In the
final lines, even as the iris comes into full bloom, the size of the
I tell you I could speak again: whatever stanza shrinks back to three lines again. But perhaps, this time
returns from oblivion returns around, the iris will find its time underground less
to find a voice: "terrible"—knowing that there will be a "door" at the end.

The enjambments in this long sentence create a line that

returns to the word "returns"! That diacope suggests that this SYMBOLS
cycle of death and rebirth—and losing and finding one's
voice—happens over and over again. Nothing goes to "oblivion" THE IRIS
without "return[ing]" to the same place it started from—and
This poem's iris doesn't just talk about rebirth—it
bringing a new voice with it.
symbolizes rebirth. Because they're some of the first
Rebirth, in this poem's eyes, is thus both a way of going right plants to pop up in spring after the long dark winter, flowers are
back to the beginning again, and a way of transforming. an ancient symbol of new life and resurrection. This iris seems

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to die, but, really, it's only waiting for its time to come to life
Where P
Personification
ersonification appears in the poem:
again. That, this poem suggests, is how all life works: death isn't
the end of life, it's just another stage of life. • Lines 1-4: “At the end of my suffering / there was a door.
The iris may also symbolize people's inner lives, which similarly / Hear me out: that which you call death / I remember.”
move through cycles of light and dark, joy and sorrow. Even in a • Lines 8-10: “It is terrible to survive / as consciousness /
frightening or empty-feeling part of life, this iris's symbolism buried in the dark earth.”
suggests, people can take courage in the thought that they'll • Lines 14-15: “And what I took to be / birds darting in low
shrubs.”
one day "bloom" again.
• Line 18: “I tell you I could speak again:”
• Lines 21-22: “from the center of my life came / a great
Where this symbol appears in the poem: fountain,”
• Lines 1-23
IMAGERY
The poem's imagery grounds its ideas in the senses, making the
POETIC DEVICES iris's experience of death and rebirth feel immediate and vivid.
The imagery here gives readers an iris's-eye view of nature.
PERSONIFICATION Planted in one spot, the iris has a pretty small world—but it
Personification allows this poem's iris to speak directly to the experiences that world intensely. For instance, take a look at
reader, and hints that the flower's rebirth might also be an lines 5-7, where the iris describes its surroundings at the
image of something that happens to humans. moment of its death:
This iris talks to its readers in the first person, remembering its
experience of death and resurrection with a lot of detail and Overhead, noises, brbranches
anches of the pine shifting
shifting.
feeling. "It is terrible," it recalls, to be a "consciousness / buried Then nothing. The weak sun
in the dark earth." Moments like this make this poem work flick
flickered
ered o
ovver the dry surface
surface.
differently than other poems that use flowers as a symbol of
rebirth. It's one thing for a poet to look at a flower and think, Here, the iris experiences its world not just through visual
"How hopeful, flowers always come back in the spring!" It's images, but through sound and touch. The word "shifting" feels
quite another to imagine going through the harrowing, almost onomatopoeic
onomatopoeic, its gentle /sh/ and /ft/ sounds echoing
frightening experience of death while still "conscious[]," on the the sound of moving branches. And the "weak," "flicker[ing]"
way to the spring. By allowing the iris to speak of its ordeal, sun on the "dry surface" of the ground evokes not just the iris's
personification allows the poem to explore the real terror and tangible surroundings, but its feelings as it finds itself becoming
pain of undergoing a rebirth. "nothing": the whole world seems to have wilted and shriveled
around it.
The iris's personification also suggests that people go through
similar cycles of flowering and death, over and over. That might Images like this come back in reverse when the iris gets reborn:
be true in a metaphorical sense: people endure grim periods of here, the "stiff earth" begins to "bend[] a little," and the iris
despair, feeling like they're "buried in the dark earth," only to notices birds in the "low shrubs." Now, there's a movement
emerge into the sunlight again. But perhaps this iris even offers from the physical feeling of the dirt to the sight of birds in
hope that this is literally true: that death isn't the end, just a bushes—a change that suggests the iris is poking a shoot
stage in an ongoing process of life. through the crust of the earth and into the outside world again.
Readers might even interpret this personified iris as the voice But perhaps the most memorable image in this poem comes
of the poet herself! When the iris talks to the reader, it seems right at the end in lines 21-23, when the iris feels " a great
to know that what the reader "fear[s]" is being conscious but fountain" shooting up from "the center of [its] life." This
mute—being "a soul and unable / to speak." This fear of being metaphor suggests both the iris's blossoming and the new
unable to speak might suggest a particularly poetic difficulty: "voice" that it's found to tell its tale. Take a look at the intensity
the feeling of going through a period so dark that it's impossible of this vision:
even to write. The personified iris might speak for a poet who
has suffered, but emerged to find her "voice"—a voice she'll use from the center of my life came
to share what she's discovered about life and death. a great fountain, deep blue
shadows on azure sea
seawater
water.
Personification thus makes the iris's experience seem deeply
human.
The image of "deep blue / shadows on azure seawater" at once
evokes the deep, varied blues of an iris's petals and transports

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the iris—and the reader—to a whole different world. In "voice" that those who "return[] from oblivion" can hope to
returning from the dead, the iris hasn't just found a bloom and a gain: this iris, after all, can tell its readers what it discovered
voice: it's transcended the limits of its little plot of ground, and underground.
now speaks of the waters of an endless "sea[]" it can never have The poem's metaphors thus make the poem's central ideas
seen. about death and resurrection feel rich and tangible, allowing
The poem's imagery thus gives readers an intense sense of the readers to imagine these mysteries through their senses.
iris's experience—both physical and spiritual.
Where Metaphor appears in the poem:
Where Imagery appears in the poem:
• Lines 1-2: “At the end of my suffering / there was a door.”
• Lines 5-7: “noises, branches of the pine shifting. / Then • Lines 21-23: “from the center of my life came / a great
nothing. The weak sun / flickered over the dry surface.” fountain, deep blue / shadows on azure seawater.”
• Line 10: “buried in the dark earth.”
• Lines 13-15: “the stiff earth / bending a little. And what I ASYNDETON
took to be / birds darting in low shrubs.”
The poem's asyndeton helps to evoke movement and change.
• Lines 21-23: “from the center of my life came / a great
For instance, take a look at what asyndeton does in lines 5-6:
fountain, deep blue / shadows on azure seawater.”
Ov
Overhead,
erhead, noises, br
branches
anches of the pine shifting.
METAPHOR Then nothing. [...]
The powerful metaphors that appear at the beginning and end
of this poem evoke the iris's transformative rebirth. Joining these words together with continuous commas, the
The first of these metaphors appears in the poem's first short poem suggests the constant "shifting" of those branches in the
stanza: wind—a ceaseless background noise that comes to a sudden
halt when the "nothing[ness]" of death puts in its startling
At the end of my suffering appearance.
there was a door
door. Asyndeton appears again when new life arrives just as
"abruptly" as death did:
This "door" is a metaphor for a hard-to-describe mystery: the
passage from the world of death into the world of life. Putting a Then it was over: that which you fear fear,, being
"door" at the end of "suffering," the iris makes its pain and fear a soul and unable
seem like a tunnel or a hallway—a necessary passage between to speak, ending abruptly
abruptly,, the stiff earth
one place and the next, rather than, say, an enveloping cloud or bending a little. [...]
devouring monster. This hopeful "door" sets up one of the
poem's biggest ideas right from the start: the pain and fear of Here, all those clauses joined together with commas create a
death, or of deathlike despair, is part of a process, not a feeling of sudden movement, like the iris's shoot climbing
dreadful doom. upward toward the light.
That hopeful idea blossoms (literally) in the last stanza, when And that sense of growth and upward-shooting motion gets
the iris bursts into bloom. Take a look at the metaphor the iris even stronger in the asyndeton of the last stanza:
uses to describe its flowering:
from the center of my life came
from the center of my life came a great fountain, deep blue
a great fountain
fountain, deep blue shadows on azure seawater.
shadows on azure sea
seawater
water..
Here, the swift, continuous feeling of asyndeton moves just like
Imagining its petals as a "great fountain" throwing its shadow the swift, continuous "fountain" of the iris's petals.
on "azure" waters, the iris evokes the sheer overflowing
All across the poem, then, asyndeton evokes ongoing, ceaseless
freedom and liberation of its new life after death. Not only has
movement, mirroring the poem's central idea: death isn't an
it become a fountain, it's a fountain that seems to feed the vast
ending, just a part of a natural process of perpetual motion.
"sea[]" itself, an image of new expansiveness and depth that
suggests the iris hasn't just come back to life: it has truly
transformed into a richer and wiser creature through its pain. Where Asyndeton appears in the poem:
And this fountain-like blossoming is also a metaphor for the • Line 5: “Overhead, noises, branches of the pine shifting.”

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• Lines 11-14: “that which you fear, being / a soul and • Lines 1-2: “suffering / there”
unable / to speak, ending abruptly, the stiff earth / • Lines 3-4: “death / I”
bending a little.” • Lines 6-7: “sun / flickered”
• Lines 22-23: “a great fountain, deep blue / shadows on • Lines 8-9: “survive / as”
azure seawater.” • Lines 9-10: “consciousness / buried”
• Lines 11-12: “being / a”
ENJAMBMENT • Lines 12-13: “unable / to”
• Lines 13-14: “earth / bending”
The many enjambments in "The Wild Iris" do two different
• Lines 14-15: “be / birds”
things at once: they create a sense of seamless, ongoing
• Lines 16-17: “remember / passage”
movement and also create surprising pauses in the poem's
• Lines 18-19: “whatever / returns”
rhythm. Both the motion and the surprises fit right into the
• Lines 19-20: “returns / to”
poem's mood, evoking both the ceaseless circle of life and the
• Lines 21-22: “came / a”
shock and wonder of being part of that circle.
• Lines 22-23: “blue / shadows”
For instance, take a look at the powerful enjambments in the
first two stanzas: CAESURA
The poem's caesur
caesurae
ae create meaningful pauses, evoking both
At the end of my suffering
the iris's experience of death and rebirth and its intensity as it
there was a door.
shares what it has learned.
Hear me out: that which you call death
I remember. For instance, take a look at the strong caesura in line 3:

In both of these short two-line stanzas, enjambment breaks up Hear me out: || that which you call death
a single sentence into a setup and payoff: I remember.

• In the first stanza, the poem sets readers up with a That mid-line colon only emphasizes the iris's insistent "Hear
sense that something's on its way, after "the end" of me out": it's clearly really important to this iris that the reader
its "suffering"—and then gives that something, a appreciate the importance of what it's about to say.
metaphorical "door," a line to itself. Putting that And almost that exact same effect turns up again in line 18:
mysterious image alone gives readers a moment to
sit with it, imagining what such a "door" might be like I tell you I could speak again: || whate
whatevver
or mean. returns from oblivion returns
• Then, in the second stanza, the poem plays the same to find a voice:
trick again, only even more intensely: this time, it's
the powerful, surprising idea of "remember[ing]"
Once more, the iris's voice sounds urgent as it addresses the
death that gets its own line.
reader directly: "I tell you I could speak again." Here, the pause
of the caesura leaves the reader sitting with that idea for a
Here, then, these enjambments let the poem present strange
moment before encountering the iris's deeper point: that
(and even impossible-sounding) ideas with an extra little burst
resurrection also confers a new voice, a new power to speak.
of surprise.
Caesurae also evoke the iris's experiences as it undergoes
But enjambments can also create a feeling of onward flow, as
death and rebirth:
they do in the poem's final stanza:
Ov
Overhead,
erhead, || noises, || br
branches
anches of the pine shifting.
from the center of my life came
Then nothing. || The weak sun
a great fountain, deep blue
shadows on azure seawater.
Here, the poem's caesurae change from the steady, continuous
movement of commas to the sudden abrupt halt of a mid-line
These lines run as continuously as the metaphorical "fountain"
period—mirroring the iris's passage from the ongoing motion of
of the iris's petals.
life to the stillness of death.

Where Enjambment appears in the poem:

Where Caesur
Caesuraa appears in the poem:

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regular rh
rhyme
yme scheme or meter
meter. Its ever-changing, varied lines
• Line 3: “out: that” are broken up into seven stanzas of all different lengths.
• Line 5: “Overhead, noises, branches” But there's a subtle pattern within those differing stanzas. The
• Line 6: “nothing. The” poem starts out with a couple of stanzas of only two lines, but
• Line 11: “over: that”
then slowly swells: it gathers to stanzas of three lines, then five
• Line 13: “speak, ending abruptly, the”
lines. Then, the very last stanza shrinks back to three lines
• Line 14: “little. And”
again.
• Line 18: “again: whatever”
• Line 22: “fountain, deep” This gradual process of growth and diminishment mirrors
exactly what the poem is about: the cycle of death and rebirth.
REPETITION Even as this iris remembers how "terrible" it was to be buried
underground in lines 8-10 ("It is terrible [...] dark earth"), the
"The Wild Iris" uses a single, meaningful moment of repetition poem's lines are starting to swell up, like a bud getting ready to
(more specifically diacope
diacope) to describe what the iris has learned send out a shoot. And in the final stanza, when the iris blooms in
from its rebirth. a "great fountain" of color, there's a sense of both triumph and
This moment turns up in lines 18-20: peaking: the stanza length starts to shrink back again here,
suggesting that the iris will again shrivel and die—and again be
I tell you I could speak again: whatever reborn.
returns from oblivion returns This is one of the strengths of free verse! Rather than fitting
to find a voice: her ideas into a particular form like the sonnet or the sestina,
Glück here allows the shape of her poem to mirror its subject.
On one level, that repetition suggests that the iris is making a
big claim, a claim that applies to every single thing that dies and METER
comes to life again: whatever comes back from the dead comes "The Wild Iris" is written in free vverse
erse, so it doesn't use a
back with a new power to speak and communicate. regular meter
meter. The lack of a steady rhythm helps to give this
Also note how these words actually appear on the page. Not poem an organic, free-flowing quality—appropriate for a poem
only is there diacope on the word "returns," but the lines about the mysteries of life, death, and growth!
quoted above are also enjambed so that the word, well, returns, Free verse also allows the poem to play with rhythms and line
appearing at both the beginning and end of line 19. That lengths for effect. Take a look at the way that works in the
repetition—in which the beginning and end of the line consists second stanza, for instance:
of exactly the same word—evokes the continuous, mysterious
process of life this iris describes. Life doesn't just return: it Hear me out: that which you call death
"returns" and "returns," beginning and ending over and over. I remember.

Where Repetition appears in the poem: This is a pretty dramatic declaration, and the speaker uses line
lengths to make it feel even more powerful. The first, long line
• Lines 18-20: “whatever / returns from oblivion returns /
to find a voice:” feels like a building drumroll: the iris even starts out by saying
"Hear me out," letting readers know that something amazing
(and maybe hard to believe) is coming. And when the iris finally
drops that amazing idea—that it "remember[s]" death—it does
VOCABULARY so in a line of just two words, so short and firm that it falls like
the sudden crash of a cymbal.
Terrible (Lines 8-9) - Here, "terrible" doesn't just mean "really
bad," but terrifying and awe-inspiring. RHYME SCHEME
Oblivion (Lines 18-19) - Nothingness, obliteration, or complete "The Wild Iris" is written in free vverse
erse, which means it doesn't
forgetfulness. use a rh
rhyme
yme scheme
scheme. Instead, it creates its music through other
Azure (Lines 22-23) - A deep, rich, jewellike blue. patterns of sound.
For instance, take a look at the subtle, varied assonance
assonance,
consonance
consonance, and sibilance in the poem's final stanza:
FORM, METER, & RHYME
from the center of myy liife caame
FORM a grea
eat fountain, deep blue
"The Wild Iris" is written in free vverse
erse, meaning it has no sh
shadowss on azzure seawater.

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There are just a few dashes of similar sound here: the long /i/ of Hades (the god of the underworld) kidnaps Persephone
"myy liife," the /ee/ of "caame / a grea
eat." And the final line uses a (daughter of the earth goddess Demeter), causing a deathly
spectrum of sibilance: the /sh/, /z/, and /s/ sounds here belong winter to fall upon the world as Demeter mourns for her lost
to the same family, but don't match perfectly. These little grace daughter. When Persephone returns to the world's surface to
notes give this passage a delicate music, highlighting the rich visit her mother, spring comes. Glück's collection Averno (2006)
imagery of the fountain-like blossom. centers on this myth, reflecting her enduring interest in the
cycle of death and rebirth—and her sense of both the intense
pain and the stunning beauty of that cycle.
SPEAKER Glück published her first book in 1968, and remains an
The speaker of "The Wild Iris" is the titular iris itself: a plant important and influential poet to this day: she served as the U.S.
that has seen some things. This iris has been through death and Poet Laureate in 2003-04, and in 2020, she won the Nobel
returned to tell the tale. It remembers the terror of being Prize for Literature.
buried in the darkness—but also the "door" at the end of its HISTORICAL CONTEXT
ordeal. Emerging from the dark underground, it produces "a
great fountain," a metaphor for both its beautiful blue blossom The Wild Iris, the collection this poem comes from, draws on
and the "voice" that speaks this very poem. This iris undergoes Glück's own experiences as a writer and a gardener. The book
a real metamorphosis: surviving death makes it both wise and follows a year in the life of a garden based on Glück's own
beautiful. Vermont backyard (though it could also be an every-garden, an
archetypal place where humanity lives in harmony with
In some sense, this iris might be the poet herself: a person who
nature—or tries to). And like plenty of poets before her, Glück
has gone through dark times only to emerge with a new "voice,"
saw her garden as a mirror for a whole range of human
an ability to share what she's learned through her suffering.
experiences.
Glück's poetry often examines her inner life, and the iris's
SETTING "terrible" period of "consciousness / buried in the dark earth"
can be read as the words of an artist intimately familiar with
"The Wild Iris" is set outdoors, though whether in a wilderness despair. This iris, like a deeply depressed person, endures the
or a garden is difficult to say. The iris itself doesn't seem to terrifying feeling of being dead and alive at once—"conscious[]"
make distinctions like that! But it does take note of "the pine" and thinking, but able to see only "oblivion."
over its head, the birds in the "low shrubs" around it, and the Glück's own struggles with her mental health might have
exact texture of the "stiff earth" it's buried in. informed both the claustrophobic intensity of this iris's death
In other words, the setting of this poem is nature from a and its eventual triumphant blossoming. Glück suffered from a
flower's-eye view. Planted in one spot, this iris sees the tree severe case of anorexia as a young woman, and underwent
above it, not just as a pine, but as the pine, the singular tree it years of therapy. But like this iris, she emerged "to find a voice":
knows. And it experiences different qualities of "flickering" her suffering, too, gave birth to a "great fountain" of poetry.
sunlight and "dry" or "stiff" earth like a connoisseur. The iris's
world is both small and rich.
MORE RESOUR
RESOURCES
CES
CONTEXT EXTERNAL RESOURCES
• A Brief Biogr
Biograph
aphyy — Learn more about Louise Glück's life
LITERARY CONTEXT and work at the Poetry Foundation.
The American poet Louise Glück first published "The Wild Iris" (https:/
(https://www
/www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/louise-gluck)
.poetryfoundation.org/poets/louise-gluck)
in a 1992 collection named after this very poem. The Wild Iris
• Glück's Influence — Read an appreciation of Glück's work
explores some of Glück's favorite themes: divided into poems
in the New Yorker. (https:/
(https://www
/www.newy
.newyork
orker
er.com/books/
.com/books/
spoken by flowers, poems spoken by a gardener, and poems
page-turner/louise-gluck-whisperer-of-the-seasons)
spoken by the voice of an omniscient God, the book looks at the
relationship between nature, humanity, and the divine. Glück • Glück's Reception — Read about Glück's recent work and
won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for this collection. honors (including the 2020 Nobel Prize for Literature).
(https:/
(https://www
/www.theguardian.com/books/2020/oct/15/she-
.theguardian.com/books/2020/oct/15/she-
Like the poetry of Alice Oswald and the short stories of Angela
ne
nevver-stops-making-demands-on-herself-how-us-poet-
Carter
Carter, Glück's poems often draw on mythology and folklore
louise-gluck-won-the-nobel)
and their connections to the natural world. "The Wild Iris," for
instance, might be inflected by the Persephone myth, in which • The P
Poem
oem Aloud — Listen to Glück herself reading this

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 Get hundreds more LitCharts at www.litcharts.com
poem aloud. (https:/
(https:///youtu.be/oRASORxulT
outu.be/oRASORxulTs)
s)
HOW T
TO
O CITE
• An Interview with Glück — Listen to an interview with
Glück (conducted by the Irish novelist Colm Tóibín).
(https:/
(https://www
/www..youtube.com/watch?v=S3kQGM_KhHQ
outube.com/watch?v=S3kQGM_KhHQ)) MLA
Nelson, Kristin. "The Wild Iris." LitCharts. LitCharts LLC, 11 May
LITCHARTS ON OTHER LOUISE GLÜCK POEMS 2021. Web. 19 May 2021.
• Gretel in Darkness
CHICAGO MANUAL
Nelson, Kristin. "The Wild Iris." LitCharts LLC, May 11, 2021.
Retrieved May 19, 2021. https://www.litcharts.com/poetry/
louise-gluck/the-wild-iris.

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