Succinct analysis of the poem 'Orchids'.

1. Orchids
Summary: The persona is moving from a house that she has lived in for five weeks. She has
sent her belongings to her future home, but one item remains in her old space,
an orchid. The persona clarifies that she was gifted the orchid, but implies that it
holds no value because the gifting of orchids is habitual for the person who gave
her. She describes the flower as odourless, but attractive to see. She watered the
orchid once, expecting it to die, but it survived. It not only survived, but
bloomed. The persona contemplates plucking the bloom and pressing it between
the pages of a book. The purpose of this is to allow her to appreciate the flower.
Genre: Lyric
Structure: Free Verse
Themes: Nature, Death, Survival, Desires
- Some Things in Life Can Never Be Forgotten: no matter how you may try
to suppress and forget some things, they just seem harder to neglect.
Mood: The mood of the poem is pensive or thoughtful. The persona is thinking about
the lack of value she places in the orchid and contemplating on what values that
the orchids have apart from their beauty.
Tone: The tone of the poem is almost annoyed and confused as the persona expresses
their futile attempts to get the orchid to wilt. In the ending the tone becomes a
more appreciative and hopeful one as the persona hopes to find out the true
value of the orchid.
Devices:
1. Simile:
 Line 14: “like polished poems” The poet compares he orchids to ‘polished
poems.’ A poem is a very beautiful work of art if understood and can convey
many meanings to the reader. The word “polished” suggests perfection. The
writer is calling the flowers perfect. More specifically, the orchids are compared
to a poem as sometimes a poem, though sounding beautiful, is hard to
understand and to discover its true meaning. The persona knows that orchids
have many meanings or values but simply can’t see any other value apart from
its beauty.

2. 2. Pun:
 Line 11: “Purple heart.” The purple heart literally refers to the splash of color in
the center of the orchid's bloom, but it could also refer to the bravery of the
flower. This is so because a purple heart, in the army, is a medal that a soldier
receives for bravery on the battle field.
3. Alliteration: the poet uses brief alliterations to give the poem a nice rhythm, especially
when describing the flower.
 Line 10: “purple petals”
 Line 14: “polished poems”
 Line 21: “full-blown blooms”
 Line 24: “peculiar poetry”
Diction: