Stanza 1

A stanza is a grouping of lines in a poem, often with similar meter, rhythm, or rhyme scheme. The first stanza of "Patterns" includes nine lines and sets the scene for the rest of the poem. Lowell begins the narrative poem with a seemingly obvious comparison between a woman dressed in a formal gown and a garden planted with an intricate design of flowers. Written in the first person, the speaker is walking "down the garden paths" in line 1. She begins to describe the daffodils and "bright blue squills" forming patterns around her. "I too am a rare / Pattern," the speaker declares in lines 7 and 8. Her pattern is the formal clothing of a wealthy eighteenth-century English woman. She wears a "stiff, brocaded gown" with "powdered hair and jewelled fan" in her hand as she ambles through a summer garden.

This stanza introduces Lowell's poetic style, the "flowing...