Among the Narcissi
Among the Narcissi - meaning Summary
Recovering Father Among Flowers
The poem observes an elderly man, likely the poet's father, among bowing narcissi as he recuperates from lung surgery. Plath links the flowers and the man through gestures of bowing and mending, using image and tone to convey vulnerability, endurance, and a formal dignity in illness. The narcissi mirror the man’s frailty and affection, appearing both like bandages and like attentive children around him.
Read Complete AnalysesSpry, wry, and gray as these March sticks, Percy bows, in his blue peajacket, among the narcissi. He is recuperating from something on the lung. The narcissi, too, are bowing to some big thing : It rattles their stars on the green hill where Percy Nurses the hardship of his stitches, and walks and walks. There is a dignity to this; there is a formality- The flowers vivid as bandages, and the man mending. They bow and stand : they suffer such attacks! And the octogenarian loves the little flocks. He is quite blue; the terrible wind tries his breathing. The narcissi look up like children, quickly and whitely.
Feel free to be first to leave comment.