Wallflowers by Donna Verreyer

I think that the thing that really makes this poem come alive are all of the allusions to familiar things, and how we would never really think of them in comparison to words. Typically, when I think of wallflowers, I think of the school dance version where they are too shy to talk to anyone. But, with all of them, I had these little pictures in my mind of words sitting with dirty, tear-streaked faces, or cowering in the corner of a gym or getting off of a boat. They look so lost and sad that it makes ME want to help them too! She was able to appeal to events that people can either identify with or easily find themselves feeling sorry for. And before they know it, they want to help the words. The fact that she uses example words (gegenshein and zoanthropy) also help to make the picture realistic. There really do exist words that people never use.

She mentions the antecedent scenario of hearing a word that she had never heard before and then using it in her writing. This gets her thinking about other unused words and their feelings which is essentially what the poem is about.

Her structure is pretty basic and coincides with the ideas what the stanza is talking about. In the first stanza there is a little bit of alliteration with words beginning with w....Otherwise, I think everything about it is pretty straight-forward as far as theme and her ideas.

When I read the title of this poem, I thought it was going to be about some depressed kid who wanted to do more in life but was stuck on the sidelines at a dance. There was the dance, and a little bit of the depression, but in a much different way that I really enjoyed. It reminded me of the book The Professor and the Madman and the idea of the importance of words.