If It Had No Pencil
poem 921
If It Had No Pencil - meaning Summary
Language and Vulnerability
The poem imagines language and objects as means of expression and asks whether they would borrow the speaker’s worn tools—pencil and words—to address the beloved. It links creative labor to bodily vulnerability: the daisy that "plucked" the speaker becomes a metaphor for being diminished or consumed in love. The speaker questions how identity and voice survive when external forces use or outsize personal means of expression.
Read Complete AnalysesIf it had no pencil Would it try mine Worn now and dull sweet, Writing much to thee. If it had no word, Would it make the Daisy, Most as big as I was, When it plucked me?
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