Assonance and Consonance

Assonance and consonance play an important role in bringing a poetic flair to the poem’s otherwise simple, naturalistic language. Assonance and consonance are sibling concepts, in that they both refer to the repetition of certain sounds in adjacent or nearby words. Assonance specifically refers to the repetition of vowel sounds, whereas consonance refers to the repetition of consonant sounds. To see how Glück deploys these devices in “The Wild Iris,” let’s begin by looking at examples of assonance in lines 16–20:

You who do not remember 

passage from the other world 

I tell you I could speak again: whatever 

returns from oblivion returns 

to find a voice.

O sounds appear multiple times in each line. Yet despite the frequency of its appearance, the numerous O’s produce a subtle variety of different tones. Notice how the long O sound in words like “you” and “who” differs from the shorter O sounds in the words “oblivion,” “other,” and “world.” But despite the variety, all these O sounds create a subtle sense of sonic unity across the passage. A similar phenomenon happens with the R sounds in the same lines:

You who do not remember 

passage from the other world 

I tell you I could speak again: whateve

returns from oblivion returns 

to find a voice.

This passage features many words that start with “re-” and hence suggest repetition and recurrence. The prevalence of R sounds in this passage therefore underscores the poem’s broader theme of rebirth.

Enjambment and Caesura

The term enjambment (en-JAM-ment) refers to the technique in which one poetic line flows continuously to the next without stopping. Most of the lines in “The Wild Iris” are enjambed, allowing one line to cascade into the next. Yet the frequency of enjambment doesn’t mean that the poem’s language flows freely throughout. Indeed, Glück frequently includes punctuation within individual lines, which regulates the flow and pace of the language by creating strong pauses. This type of strong, mid-line pause is known as a caesura (say-ZHOO-rah). As a poetic technique, the use of caesura was much more common in ancient verse in Greek, Latin, and Old English. Whereas the ancient use of caesura tended to be rigid and formal, Glück’s sporadic use of the device has a more informal effect, which gives the poem a modern sound. Taken together, the combination of enjambment and caesura creates a subtly modulated rhythm that approximates prose. As an example, consider lines 21–23:

from the center of my life came 

a great fountain, deep blue 

shadows on azure seawater.

The first two lines are both enjambed, and the middle line has a caesura. When read aloud, this combination of enjambment and caesura has a very naturalistic sound. Indeed, to some ears it may sound more like prose than a poem.

Personification

Personification refers to instances where a poet invests an inanimate object or abstract concept with human-like attributes or feelings. This literary device is central to “The Wild Iris,” the speaker of which is, in fact, a wild iris. Glück has endowed her botanical speaker with the capacity for human language, enabling them to address us readers directly. Intriguingly, the speaker seems very familiar with the way many humans approach death with trepidation and fear. The speaker addresses this issue head-on in lines 11–14:

Then it was over: that which you fear, being 

a soul and unable 

to speak, ending abruptly, the stiff earth 

bending a little.

From their botanical perspective, the iris believes that the human apprehensiveness in relation to death is unnecessary. Our problem lies in the way we imagine the experience of death in terms of “being a soul” that remains conscious and yet “unable to speak.” Here, the speaker may be referencing human beliefs about death as a passage into an afterlife. But in contrast to such a belief, the iris insists that death is always continuous with life, and though unpleasant, the unpleasantness does eventually end and lead toward rebirth. Paradoxically, the wild iris is at their most personified when they attempt to reassure us humans by speaking from their uniquely nonhuman point of view.