Purple Is Fashionable Twice - Analysis

From wardrobe to self-coronation

The poem’s little joke is that it begins in the language of trend reports and ends in the language of absolute power. Purple is fashionable sounds like a passing remark about what people are wearing this season of the year. But by the last two lines, the color has become a signal for something far more private: the moment a soul perceives itself as an Emperor. The central claim tucked into this miniature is that purple returns not because the calendar says so, but because the self suddenly recognizes its own authority.

Why purple comes back twice

Purple carries two worlds at once: it’s a fabric-dye, a social fashion, and also a traditional color of royalty. The word twice sets up a sly doubling. On the surface, it suggests a predictable cycle—there are two moments in the year when purple looks right, like a seasonal palette. But the poem’s second return is internal: purple becomes fashionable again when the soul reenters a state of sovereignty. The tension is between what’s ruled by the year’s rotation and what’s ruled by a sudden, uncalendarable change in consciousness.

The turn: trend language meets spiritual confidence

The hinge arrives with And when. That phrase doesn’t merely add another example; it pivots from public taste to private revelation. When a soul perceives itself implies that emperorship is not granted by others, or inherited, or proven—it’s perceived. The tone shifts from lightly observational to quietly audacious: a soul can crown itself by recognizing itself. Calling the soul an Emperor (not merely royal, not a king or queen) makes the claim even more total, as if the inner life can command an entire realm.

A sharp question the poem leaves behind

If purple is fashionable both in a season and in self-recognition, the poem asks us to consider whether our outer styles are faint echoes of an inner state. Do we dress like subjects most of the year, and only occasionally remember the feeling that makes purple necessary—because the self has decided, briefly and fiercely, to rule?