"The Wild Iris," first published in a 1992 collection of the same name, is Louise Glück's poem of death, rebirth, and transformation. The poem's speaker is an iris, a flower that has endured death and returned to tell the tale. Through the story of its seeming death and its new flowering in the spring, the iris offers its readers a mysterious hope: death, in this flower's experience, isn't an ending, but a stage in the ongoing process of life.

• Read the full text of “The Wild Iris”

• “The Wild Iris” Summary

• “The Wild Iris” Themes

  • 

    Death, Rebirth, and Transformation

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-23

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “The Wild Iris”

  • Lines 1-4

    At the end ...
    ... I remember.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 5-7

    Overhead, noises, branches ...
    ... the dry surface.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 8-10

    It is terrible ...
    ... the dark earth.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 11-15

    Then it was ...
    ... in low shrubs.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 16-20

    You who do ...
    ... find a voice:

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 21-23

    from the center ...
    ... on azure seawater.

    

    

    

    

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• “The Wild Iris” Symbols

  • 

    The Iris

    Where this symbol appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-23

• “The Wild Iris” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

  • Personification

    

    

    

    

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    Where personification appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-4: “At the end of my suffering / there was a door. / Hear me out: that which you call death / I remember.”
    • Lines 8-10: “It is terrible to survive / as consciousness / buried in the dark earth.”
    • Lines 14-15: “And what I took to be / birds darting in low shrubs.”
    • Line 18: “I tell you I could speak again:”
    • Lines 21-22: “from the center of my life came / a great fountain,”

  • Imagery

    

    

    

    

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    Where imagery appears in the poem:

    • Lines 5-7: “noises, branches of the pine shifting. / Then nothing. The weak sun / flickered over the dry surface.”
    • Line 10: “buried in the dark earth.”
    • Lines 13-15: “the stiff earth / bending a little. And what I took to be / birds darting in low shrubs.”
    • Lines 21-23: “from the center of my life came / a great fountain, deep blue / shadows on azure seawater.”

  • Metaphor

    

    

    

    

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    Where metaphor appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-2: “At the end of my suffering / there was a door.”
    • Lines 21-23: “from the center of my life came / a great fountain, deep blue / shadows on azure seawater.”

  • Asyndeton

    

    

    

    

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    Where asyndeton appears in the poem:

    • Line 5: “Overhead, noises, branches of the pine shifting.”
    • Lines 11-14: “that which you fear, being / a soul and unable / to speak, ending abruptly, the stiff earth / bending a little.”
    • Lines 22-23: “a great fountain, deep blue / shadows on azure seawater.”

  • Enjambment

    

    

    

    

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    Where enjambment appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-2: “suffering / there”
    • Lines 3-4: “death / I”
    • Lines 6-7: “sun / flickered”
    • Lines 8-9: “survive / as”
    • Lines 9-10: “consciousness / buried”
    • Lines 11-12: “being / a”
    • Lines 12-13: “unable / to”
    • Lines 13-14: “earth / bending”
    • Lines 14-15: “be / birds”
    • Lines 16-17: “remember / passage”
    • Lines 18-19: “whatever / returns”
    • Lines 19-20: “returns / to”
    • Lines 21-22: “came / a”
    • Lines 22-23: “blue / shadows”

  • Caesura

    

    

    

    

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    Where caesura appears in the poem:

    • Line 3: “out: that”
    • Line 5: “Overhead, noises, branches”
    • Line 6: “nothing. The”
    • Line 11: “over: that”
    • Line 13: “speak, ending abruptly, the”
    • Line 14: “little. And”
    • Line 18: “again: whatever”
    • Line 22: “fountain, deep”

  • Repetition

    

    

    

    

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    Where repetition appears in the poem:

    • Lines 18-20: “whatever / returns from oblivion returns / to find a voice:”

• “The Wild Iris” Vocabulary

  Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

  • Terrible
  • Oblivion
  • Azure
  • (Location in poem: Lines 8-9: “It is terrible to survive / as consciousness”)

• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “The Wild Iris”

  • Form

  • Meter

  • Rhyme Scheme

• “The Wild Iris” Speaker

• “The Wild Iris” Setting

• Literary and Historical Context of “The Wild Iris”

• More “The Wild Iris” Resources

  • External Resources

    • A Brief Biography — Learn more about Louise Glück's life and work at the Poetry Foundation.

    • Glück's Influence — Read an appreciation of Glück's work in the New Yorker.

    • Glück's Reception — Read about Glück's recent work and honors (including the 2020 Nobel Prize for Literature).

    • The Poem Aloud — Listen to Glück herself reading this poem aloud.

    • An Interview with Glück — Listen to an interview with Glück (conducted by the Irish novelist Colm Tóibín).

  • LitCharts on Other Poems by Louise Glück

    • Gretel in Darkness

    • Witchgrass

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