The Wild Iris- Louise Gluck

The Wild Iris I enjoyed reading. I enjoyed this reading so much more then any of the other readings we have had in class thus far. I could read through the poems and get a sense of imagery, and sense of feel, a sense of emotion and a sense of what the over all picture or meaning was supposed to be. I did have to look up a few words here and there and I did have to read over a few poems more then once, twice and even three times, but unlike a few of the other readings we have had, these poems actually made more sense every time I read over them. I would grasp a little more knowledge and understanding every time I read them over which was a huge relief for me, I was wondering when I was actually going to get some sort of break when it came to poems we have been reading and Louise Gluck really helped me out.

Reading through her book I felt like she has great examples of what I believe poems are. Not necessarily love poems or all sorts of rhyming, but a nice view, a nice message, a relaxing and rewarding feeling when you’re done.

Over all these poems have a lot to do with Faith, with God, with the creation of humans and the creation of Mother Nature specifically plants. These seem to be a lot to do with health, death, and birth. Louise tends to question her belief in God or a higher power a lot in this book, she seems to sway back in forth on where is God, does he exist, if he does why cant we see him? Something interesting she does with her poems is she gives plants a voice, a lot of poems in this book are about how plants are feeling and how plants are thinking, which makes you have to step outside of your comfort zone because we all know plants don’t talk and its very unlikely they even have the knowledge of being able to feel emotion of any sort.

One poem I really enjoyed is called “Matins” it’s the matins that’s on page 12.
This poem I believe is basically saying that she is questioning her belief in God, she is saying that its hard to believe in something that you cant see, that she knows he is around and that she is supposed to love him and praise him but how can she truly allow herself to do such a thing if she really doesn’t know if he is real. If something is real then one should be able to see it or feel it or taste it, and with God you cant do any of those things. She writes, “Forgive me if I say I love you:” “I cannot Love what I cant conceive”, “We are left to think you couldn’t possibly exist”. This is just showing how she wants to love and believe in a higher power but how can she? She is lead to believe that the only thing that somewhat shows her a God exist is a silence of a morning, or cats not yet fighting or even crickets that haven’t started rubbing their wings yet. She is looking for an answer that most everyone is in hopes to find.