Violet

[Volaticus]

I do like the rhyme of "devout" and "drought".

The problem I have with it is, "Violet" remains unknown an unidentified to the reader (unless you are making some oblique reference to "Love-in-idleness" which is actually a pansy), and so there is really no reason the reader should care what she did. There is also lacking enough clues to see her as representing a particular cultural archetype. Regardless, the last sentence, makes no sense at all. Rather it is not a sentence at all, but two dependent clauses linked by a semi-colon. If the semi-colon is removed then it reads,

"Her virtue wilted a midsummer's drought".

A sentence no doubt, but one with little meaning, unless her "virtue wilted a midsummer's drought". How does virtue wilt a midsummer's drought? What is more likely is that her loss of virtue wilts, or ends a midsummer's drought.

If alluding to the play, the flower indeed end's a midsummer's drought in several areas. Yet, the flower is not a violet, so I am at a loss as to what this poem is suppose to be about, or mean, or anything.

Maybe I am missing the point, if so hope you will enlighten me.

Dale

PS In Act II Scene I Oberon says:

"I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine:
There sleeps Titania"

Hi Dale,
Thanks a lot for your feedback, it's much appreciated.
I’ll try to explain what I wanted to say with the poem. I chose “Whitest” because I think it symbolizes purity. So the “Whitest Violet” is the purest of all the white violet flowers. But even the purest can succumb (“virtue wilted”) to unforeseeable or powerful forces, such as a midsummer drought. I should probably change “a” to “from” or “in” (or something like that) in the last line, for clarity. It’s an old poem (this is a translation of it), so I struggle to remember everything I thought of when I originally wrote it. Anyway, I hope this made it a bit clearer, as to what I tried to tell with the poem. Once again, thanks for commenting.

Best,
Louise