Seawater (Symbol in "The Wild Iris")
In the first poem of the collection, "The Wild Iris," the speaker describes having gone through death, rebirth, and transformation. The final image of the poem is "a great fountain, deep blue / shadows on azure seawater" coming from the center of the Iris's life. This image startles the reader into attention because the ocean is not generally associated with the iris flower, but here it is done in a skillful and beautiful way. The seawater is a symbol of the unexpected, which occurs both in this poem and throughout the collection. Seawater also represents the wildness of the Iris, suggesting that though it is humans who cultivate flowers, the flowers have a consciousness of their own.
Prayer (Symbol)
Throughout the collection, prayer is a symbol for the desire for divine connection. The poems told from the perspective of the poet-gardener are all named "Matins" and "Vespers" (respectively referring to morning and evening prayers). In these poems, the speaker addresses a divine force and seeks to make meaning in her life. At times, the speaker experiences suffering and despair, as in "Matins" (#4) where she says, "I am / at fault, at fault." But she continues to reach out to a divine force with her questions and observations, and she looks for answers from God in the natural world.
The Garden (Allegory)
The entire collection is centered on an earthly garden which makes references to the biblical Garden of Eden and the Fall From Grace in which the first humans were exiled from Eden. This first becomes clear in the second "Matins" poem, in which the speaker addresses an "Unreachable father" who exiled humans from heaven and made an earthly replica designed to teach humans a lesson. Throughout the collection, the gardener-poet seeks to discover what she is meant to learn, and to make meaning in her life.
Perhaps one way in which the garden in this collection differs from the garden it allegorizes is that things are more complex in Glück's garden than just the binary of good and evil. The gardener-poet struggles to continue living her life in good faith, with or without a sign from God (as stated in the fifth "Matins"). But some of the flowers offer a different perspective on human actions that shape the gardener-poet's efforts to live a good life. For example, Witchgrass points out the way that humans need something to blame when they are mourning. This applies to contexts other than gardening as well. Clover also points out the hypocrisy involved in gardening: in order to cultivate the desired plants, humans must root out others.
Flowers and Plants (Motif)
Many of the poems are told from the perspectives of flowers and plants. This not only provides for beautiful sensory engagement, but also offers insight on human nature from nonhuman and more-than-human perspectives. The term "more-than-human" was first used by philosopher and ecologist David Abram, and it resonates with the notions of co-dwelling, animism, and humility. These notions appear in Glück's collection in the sovereign voices of flowers and plants.
Light (Symbol)
In the collection, light is a symbol for divine presence on earth. The deity in the poems takes on different forms, as shown in the poem "Clear Morning" when the speaker recounts "speaking // through vehicles only, in / details of earth, as you prefer." This is the first poem in the collection in which the deity is the speaker, and the message of this poem is that the deity will no longer appear to the gardener-poet in the forms that she is used to. Now, the deity will speak as different seasons, the wind, the experience of love in moonlight, and so on. Many of these new forms have to do with light: for example, as shown in the poems "Retreating Light" and "Sunset."
For the plant speakers in the poem, the divine is represented by the sun. In "The Red Poppy," the flower speaker states, "I have / a lord in heaven / called the sun." In addition, Snowdrops, a flower that survives in winter without light, experiences suffering.
