The Pink Carnation
The Pink Carnation - meaning Summary
Longing for a Lost Past
The poem is a brief, nostalgic address from a speaker who cannot forget a past love and simpler days symbolized by a pink carnation. He confesses attempts to drown memory in labor, drink, and distraction, but is undone by vivid recollection of a cottage, garden, and the time they married impulsively. The closing lines mix remorse and blessing, asking forgiveness and a kindly remembrance rather than reproach.
Read Complete AnalysesI may walk until I’m fainting, I may write until I’m blinded, I might drink until my back teeth are afloat, But I can’t forget my ruin and the happy days behind it, When I wore a pink carnation in my coat. Oh, I thought that time could conquer, and I thought my heart would harden, But it sends a sudden lump into my throat, When I think of what I have been, and the cottage and the garden, When I wore a pink carnation in my coat. God forgive you, girl, and bless you! Let no line of mine distress you – I am sorry for the bitter lines I wrote; But remember, and think kindly, for we met and married blindly, When I wore a pink carnation in my coat.
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