The Wild Iris is a collection of poems published in 1992 by American poet Louise Glück. Considered to be among the most talented American contemporary poets, Glück is known for her technical mastery, the distinct voices in her poems, and her sensitivity and insight. The focus of her work includes family dynamics, existential anguish, the search for self, and the natural world. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2020, credited “for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal.” The language in Glück's poems is straightforward, relatable, and rhythmic, adding to the strength of the speakers' voices.
After experiencing a period of stagnation in which she did not write for two years, Glück wrote The Wild Iris in just eight weeks. Drawing on her love for gardening, she embodies the voices of the natural world in these poems, as well as those of a gardener-poet and an omniscient deity. Literary critic Helen Vendler describes the tone of spiritual assertion in The Wild Iris as one that "not many women had the courage to claim." But claim it she did, and the collection went on to win a Pulitzer Prize.
