Poetry Analysis_The Most Beautiful Flower

The Most Beautiful Flower
By Cheryl L. Costello-Forshey

The park bench was deserted as I sat down to read
Beneath the long, straggly branches of an old willow tree.
Disillusioned by life with good reason to frown,
For the world was intent on dragging me down.
And if that weren’t enough to ruin my day,
A young boy out of breath approached me, all tired from play.
He stood right before me with his head tilted down
And said with great excitement, “Look what I found!”

In his hand was a flower, and what a pitiful sight,
With its petals all worn – not enough rain, or too little light.
Wanting him to take his dead flower and go off to play,
I faked a small smile and then shifted away.
But instead of retreating he sat next to my side
And placed the flower to his nose and declared with overacted surprise,
“It sure smells pretty and it’s beautiful, too.
“That’s why I picked it; here, it’s for you.”

The weed before me was dying or dead.
Not vibrant of colors, orange, yellow or red.
But I knew I must take it, or he might never leave.
So I reached for the flower, and replied, “Just what I need.”
But instead of him placing the flower in my hand,
He held it midair without reason or plan.
It was then that I noticed for the very first time
That weed-toting boy could not see: he was blind.

I heard my voice quiver, tears shone in the sun
As I thanked him for picking the very best one.
“You’re welcome,” he smiled, and then ran off to play,
Unaware of the impact he’d had on my day.
I sat there and wondered how he managed to see
A self-pitying woman beneath an old willow tree.
How did he know of my self-indulged plight?
Perhaps from his heart, he’d been blessed with true sight.
Through the eyes of a blind child, at last I could see
The problem was not with the world; the problem was me.
And for all of those times I myself had been blind,
I vowed to see the beauty in life, and appreciate every second that’s mine.
And then I held that wilted flower up to my nose
And breathed in the fragrance of a beautiful rose
And smiled as I watched that young boy, another weed in his hand
About to change the life of an unsuspecting old man.

Analysis of The Most Beautiful Flower poem by Cheryl L. Costello-Forshey

Versification:

This Cheryl L. Costello-Forshey’s poetry is written in five eight-line stanzas (octaves) that followed rhyming pattern of abccddcc for the first stanza,  aabbccdd for the second stanza, aabaccdc for the third stanza,  aabbccdd for the fourth stanza,  aabbccbb for the last stanza. So, the rhyme scheme of this poem is irregular, it is uncommon rhyme scheme.  It was hard to decide the poetic feet because the poet used free verse style. So, there is no pattern in rhyme. Each line of this poem contains varying numbers of types of poetic feet. There are also:

• Assonance

It can be found at the first stanza in line 3 and 4

Disillusioned by life with good reason to frown,

For the world was intent on dragging me down.

In line 9 and 10 of the third stanza

In his hand was a flower, and what a pitiful sight,

With its petals all worn – not enough rain, or too little light.

in line 39 and 40 of the last stanza

And smiled as I watched that young boy, another weed in his hand
About to change the life of an unsuspecting old man.

• Run on line

For example: in line 26 and 27

But instead of him placing the flower in my hand,
He held it midair without reason or plan.

• End stop line

For example: in line 20

“That’s why I picked it; here, it’s for you.”

• Alliteration

For example:

In line 12

I faked a small smile and then shifted away.

In line 21

The weed before me was dying or dead.

In line 25

I heard my voice quiver, tears shone in the sun

In line 30

A self-pitying woman beneath an old willow tree.
Theme:

Character “I” in this poem can be discussed in terms of psychological point of view. We are examining a women living in a feeling of ungrateful to the God. The theme of this poem is everything in this world has its own ways to be appreciated by human. It tells about how human can be grateful to God for everything in this world. There’s no limitation such as time, shape, space or age. The narrator presented that the poem normally discuss about a worn-out flower that represent as the most beautiful flower that change her life a lot since it given by the blind young boy to her. She became aware that so far she is more lucky than that young boy. The young boy reminds her about her that actually instead of the world, the hindrance of her life come from the narrator her self. In other word, started from the first, the narrator wanted to convey about how human can change his/her life in terms of the behaviour. It’s about how the poet can change from ungrateful woman into grateful woman which always appreciates every second of her life. In short, the poem is successful because it conveyed the poet’s experience through emotional problem of the poet herself psychologically from perspective which is everything will become more beautiful if we look it from the true heart and be grateful to God as well.

Message:

The most beautiful flower of Cheryl L. Costello-Forshey’s poem explores the concept of gratefulness to the Almighty creator toward everthing that has given to our selves without considering how it looks like. We should appreciate every single thing that belongs to ours. The most important thing is how we can share our attention to another people by giving them appreciation so that it motivates them to be a good human.

Point of View:

In this poem, the poet is a woman. She use first-person point of view by using pronoun I. I think this poem about the personal experience of the poet since the poem tells about the feeling of the poet. The poet has an emotional problem like she blames the world as she isn’t grateful to the god. The poet feels as she is a pitiful human in the world till she meet the young boy. It means that the whole of this poem is also related to man and society but in terms of psychological point of view. The poem is related to man and society since there is also tells about the relationship between the poet to the young boy. There is an interaction between them. But, according to the message that is conveyed by the poet through this poem, I can conclude that this poem is based on psychologycal point of view, because it commonly tells about attitude, feeling and experience.

General meaning:

In this poem, the narrator described the changes of the poet’s attitude in interpreting her life from the negative perspective to the positive perspective through the flower that given by the blind young boy.

 

Detail meaning:

The poet begins by describing the situation of her life which she thinks that it is very terrible for her. The very gloomy life can be seen in the first stanza as the description of her life in her mind. The days that passed by her seems like very dissapointed by the world. Her attitude in interpreting her life in this world has changed since she met a young boy who came enthusiastically and sat beside her with a flower that looked so plain. Surprisingly, that flower is given to the woman specially. The flower is forced to be received by the poet since the young boy didn’t want to move from his seat beside the poet. Then, the poet realized that the young boy was blind, because he didn’t give the flower directly to her hand. But she was confused why did the young boy could know about her problem since she thought actually the young boy used his heart which had been blessed by the God with the true sight. By knowing that fact, the poet aware and regret about what she has done at the past, she realized that she had done a mistake in interpreting her life. She could know that she is the cause of her problem so far, which was actually her own heart. Then, she was very grateful to the God and thanked to the young boy that he had given her a very best flower that could change her perspective about her life. Next, from the young boy, she could see the beauty of that flower,  it couldn’t be seen from how it looked like concretely, but she could see it from her heart, how she appreciated the flower positively. So, she could see the beauty of the flower as well as the pretty smell of the flower until she called it the most beautiful flower. Finally, at the last stanza the poet told that she could tell that the plain flower as a beautiful rose and let it close to her nose because she could feel it from her true heart sight.

Poet’s Intention:

The poet does not simply set out to describe her feeling changing directly, but she make it in a long story from the first she met the young boy until the young boy brings her to the new character of the good person. From the way the poet described the sequences, we can see that she intented to make us realise every single situation of her experience, yet the the poet wanted the readers to appreciate everything that has given in their lives so that the reader could get the meaning easily. That is, seeing something is not only from the goodnesses but also from the weaknesses.

Figurative language:

I think it was difficult for me to find out the figurative speech in this poem since this poem is written by using dennotative meaning. I think the meaning of the poem is normally stated as the way it is. There are not many figure of speeches in this poem. So, from the whole of the poem, I only can find some figurative languages:

• Hyperbole

I heard my voice quiver, tears shone in the sun Line 25

• Personification

For the world was intent on dragging me down. Line 4

Mood:

I my opinion, when I read this poem, I was feeling that I was grateful to God for everything that has given to me in this world. Simply, the readers can feel thank to God for the bless of anything that they have. Everyone who reads this poem must be motivated, and the most important thing is they must be interested to shared their special abilities to another person in this world.

Approach:

The approach of this poem is psychological approach, because from the first line the poet tells about the emotional feeling that experienced by the poet. She got her problem also from her feeling and from her attitude. So, such from the first line that describe the poet feeling, the following also tells about another feeling or experience of the poet. The poem which used psychological approach normally provided some feelings, experiences, emotionals, attitudes and problems that were experienced by the character in the poem.