Flowers
(By Wendy Cope)
Some men never think of it.
You did. You’s come along
And say you’d nearly brought me flowers
But something had gone wrong.
The shop was closed. Or you had doubts–
The sort that minds like ours
Dream up incessantly. You thought
I might not want your flowers.
It made me smile and hug you then.
Now I can only smile.
But, look, the flowers you nearly brought
Have lasted all this while.
Love- exclusive ‘you did’
Love not immortal ‘now I can only smile’ – can no longer hug? Dead?
Didn’t want to give flowers, flower die? Symbol of their love having a time stamp as death will part them. ‘the flowers you nearly brought have lasted all this while’ optimism, it is more than physical. The sentiment of such acts is what lasts, as if she prefers him not bringing her flowers.
Use of hyphen, shows a stopping of a trail of thought, disjointed. Reflective of ‘doubts’.
Syntactic Parallelism ‘The shop was closed, The sort that minds…’
Oxymornic. She can only smile not hug, has lost him to death. However, she is speaking to him as if he is still there, so perhaps the sentiment takes their love beyond death: ‘look’, ‘you did’
