Wallflowers (Poem Response 1)

Wallflowers by Donna Vorrey

I heard a word today, I'd never heard before--
I wondered where it had been all my life.
I welcomed it, wooed it with my pen,
let it know it was loved.

They say if ou use a word three times, it's yours.
What happens to ones that no one speaks?

Don't they wait bitterly
hollow-eyed orphans in Dickensian bedrooms,
longing for someone to say,
"yes, you... you're the one"?

Or do the wait patiently, shy shadows
at the high school dance,
knowing that, given the slightest chance,
someday they'll bloom?

I want to make room for all of them,
to be the Wllis Island of diction--
sive me our tired, your poor,
your gegenshin, your zoanthropy--
all those words without a home,
come out a play--live on my poem.





This poem was one of my favorites out of the entire poems given. This poem just popped out to me just because I think everybody can relate to the poem every once in while. Everybody feels out of place in their life and feels they don;t belong, but with this poem it doesn't matter cause eventually you will boom into the person you want to be. I just thought if how it was interesting of how the poem talks about “words”, but the meaning is completely different. From what I gathered from the poem it is about those people who are not necessarily the most popular people, most specifically in high school like the author mentions in the poem, but will someday grow and be who they want even if they are not the most popular. Popularity does not determine our future, choices you make do.
For me it was the 4th stanza that really stuck out to me. Specifically the last line where she talks about the a word not being used or paid attention to at a high school dance but someday they will bloom just it is not their time. With this she is talking about people and how they will bloom and just need to be patience and this step in your life is not at important and other.(At least that is what I interpret from the poem) When she expressly says “someday they’ll bloom” I also think that this line is a reference to the title because the title is called Wallflowers and wallflowers are actually noticeable because they do stick out. (I don’t really know how to explain my thinking in this paragraph, so sorry if it is confusing.J)
The parts of the poem I did not understand would have to be the second stanza, just because I have never heard that if you use a word 3 times it is yours. Also the title of the poem is also something that I really don’t understand also just because I don’t really know anything about wallflowers and really have know idea why she put that as the title. Especially when she is talking about “words”, but actually means real people in real life. The poem is a huge metaphor between unknown words and people, so why is it called Wallflowers.