FINAL ASSIGNMENT

ANALYSIS OF POETRY
The

Most Beautiful Flower

By Cheryl L. Costello-Forshey
Lecturer: Reni Heriyanti SS. M.Hum

Compiled By:
FERA ASMARITA
A1B211076
Class B

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
Teacher Training and Education Faculty
JAMBI UNIVERSITY

The Most Beautiful Flower

By Cheryl L. Costello-Forshey
The park bench was deserted as I sat down to read
Beneath the long, straggly branches of an old willow tree.
Disillusioned by life with good reason to frown,
For the world was intent on dragging me down.
And if that weren't enough to ruin my day,
A young boy out of breath approached me, all tired from play.
He stood right before me with his head tilted down
And said with great excitement, "Look what I found!"
In his hand was a flower, and what a pitiful sight,
With its petals all worn - not enough rain, or too little light.
Wanting him to take his dead flower and go off to play,
I faked a small smile and then shifted away.
But instead of retreating he sat next to my side
And placed the flower to his nose and declared with overacted surprise,
"It sure smells pretty and it's beautiful, too.
"That's why I picked it; here, it's for you."
The weed before me was dying or dead.
Not vibrant of colors, orange, yellow or red.
But I knew I must take it, or he might never leave.
So I reached for the flower, and replied, "Just what I need."
But instead of him placing the flower in my hand,
He held it midair without reason or plan.
It was then that I noticed for the very first time
That weed-toting boy could not see: he was blind.
I heard my voice quiver, tears shone in the sun
As I thanked him for picking the very best one.
"You're welcome," he smiled, and then ran off to play,
Unaware of the impact he'd had on my day.

I sat there and wondered how he managed to see

A self-pitying woman beneath an old willow tree.
How did he know of my self-indulged plight?
Perhaps from his heart, he'd been blessed with true sight.
Through the eyes of a blind child, at last I could see
The problem was not with the world; the problem was me.
And for all of those times I myself had been blind,
I vowed to see the beauty in life, and appreciate every second that's
mine.
And then I held that wilted flower up to my nose
And breathed in the fragrance of a beautiful rose
And smiled as I watched that young boy, another weed in his hand
About to change the life of an unsuspecting old man.

Analysis for The Most Beautiful Flower poem by Cheryl L. Costello-Forshey

Versification:
This Cheryl L. Costello-Forsheys poetry is written in ten four-line stanzas (quatrains) that
follow a rhyming pattern of abcc for the first stanza, aabb for the second stanza, aabb for the
third stanza, aabb for the fourth stanza, aaba for the fifth stanza, aaba for the sixth stanza, aabb
for the seventh stanza, aabb for the eighth stanza, aabb for the nineth stanza, and aabb for the
last stanza. So, the rhyme scheme of this poem is irregular. It is hard to decide the poetic feet
because the poet use free verse style, so there is no pattern in rhyme. Each line of this poem
contains varying numbers of types of poetic feet. There are also:
o

Assonance
in the first stanza in line 3 and 4
Disillusioned by life with good reason to frown,
For the world was intent on dragging me down.
In line 9 and 10 of the third stanza
In his hand was a flower, and what a pitiful sight,
With its petals all worn - not enough rain, or too little light.
in line 39 and 40 of the last stanza
And smiled as I watched that young boy, another weed in his hand
About to change the life of an unsuspecting old man.

Run on line
For example: in line 26 and 27
But instead of him placing the flower in my hand,
He held it midair without reason or plan.

End stop line

For example: in line 20
"That's why I picked it; here, it's for you."

Alliteration
For example:
in line 12
I faked a small smile and then shifted away.

in line 21
The weed before me was dying or dead.

In line 25
I heard my voice quiver, tears shone in the sun

In line 30
A self-pitying woman beneath an old willow tree.

Theme:
Character I in this poem can be discussed in terms of psychological point of view. We are
examining a women living in a feeling of ungrateful to the God. The theme of this poem is that
everythings in this world has their own ways to be appreciated by human. It tells about how
human be grateful to the God for everything in this world. Theres no limitation such as time,
shape, space or age. The narrator presents that the poem normally discuss about a worn-out
flower that represent as the most beautiful flower that change her life a lot since it given by the
blind young boy to her. She became aware that so far she is more lucky than that young boy. The
young boy reminds her about her that actually instead of the world the hindrance of her life come
from the narrator her self. In other word, From the first, the narrator is want to convey about how
human can change his/her life in terms of the behaviour. Its about how the poet can change from
ungrateful woman into grateful woman which always appreciated every second of her life. In
short, the poem is successful because it conveys the poet experience through the emotional
problem of the poet psychologically from the perspective that everything is became look
beautiful if we see from the true heart and grateful to the God as well.
Message:
The most beautiful flower of Cheryl L. Costello-Forsheys poem is explores the concept of
gratefulness to the Almighty creator toward everthing that has given to our selves without
considering how it look like. We should appreciate every single thing that belongs to ours. The

most important thing is how we can share our attention to another people by giving them
appreciation so that it motivates them to be a good human.
Point of View:
In this poem, the poet is a woman. She use first-person point of view by using pronoun I. I think
this poem about the personal experience of the poet. Because, the poem tells about the feeling of
the poet. The poet has the emotional problem that is, she blames the world as she isnt grateful to
the god. The poet feels as she is a pitiful human in the world till she meet the young boy. It
means that the whole of this poem is also related to man and society but in terms psychological
point of view. The poem is relate to man and society since there is also tells about the
relationship between the poet to the young boy, there is an interaction between them. But
according to the message that conveyed by the poet through this poem, I can conclude that this
poem is based on psychologycal point of view, because it commonly tells about attitude, feeling
and experience.
General meaning:
In this poem, the narrator describe the changes of the poets attitude in interpreting her life from
the negative perspective to the positive perspective through the flower that given by the blind
young boy.
Detail meaning:
The poet begins by describing the situation of her life which she think that it is very terrible for
her. The very gloomy life can be seen in the first stanza as the description of her life in her mind.
The days that passed by her seems like very dissapointed by the world. Her attitude in
interpreting her life in this world has changed since she met a young boy who came
enthusiastically and sit beside her with a flower that look so plain. Surprisingly, that flower is
given to the woman specially. The flower is forced receive by the poet since the young boy dont
want to move from his seat beside the poet. Then, the poet realized that the young boy was blind,
because he didnt give the flower directly to her hand. But she is confuse why does the young
boy could know about her matter since she think if that actually the young boy use his heart who
has be blessed by the God with the true sight. By knowing that fact, the poet aware and regret
about what she has done at the past, she realized that she has do a mistake in interpreting her life.
She could know that she is the resource of her problem so far, exactly her heart. Then, she was
very grateful to the God and thanked to the young boy that he has given her a very best flower
that can change her perspective about her life. Next, by the young boy she able to see the

beautiful of that flower, it cant be seen from how look like concretely, but she see it from the
heart, how she appreciate the flower positively. So then she can see di beauty of the flower as
well as the pretty smell of the flower until she called it the most beautiful flower. Finally in the
last stanza the poet tells that she can mean the plain flower as a beautiful rose and let it close to
her nose because she feels it from the true heart sight.
Poets Intention:
The poet does not simply set out to describe her feeling changes directly, but she make it in a
long story from the first she met the young boy until the young boy brings her to the new
character of the good person. From the way the poet describe the sequences, we can see that she
intents to make we realize every single situation of her experience, yet the the poet want the
reader to appreciate everything that has given in this life and so that the reader can get the
meaning easily. That is, see something not only from the goodness but also from the weakness.
Figurative language:
I think its difficult for me to find out the figurative speech in this poem since this poem is
written by using dennotative meaning. I think the meaning of the poem is normally stated as the
way it is. There are not many figure of speech in this poem. So, from the whole of the poem, I
only can find some figurative language:
o Hyperbole
I heard my voice quiver, tears shone in the sun Line 25
o Personification
For the world was intent on dragging me down. Line 4
Mood:
I my opinion, when I read this poem, I feel that I was grateful to God for everything that has
given to me in this world. Simply, the readers can feel thank to God for the bless of anything that
they have. Everyone who read this poem must be motivated, and the most important they must
be interested to shared their special ability to another person in this world.
Approach:
The approach of this poem is psychological approach, because from the first line the poet tells
about the emotional feeling that experienced by the poet. She get her problem also from her
feeling and from her attitude. So, such from the first line that describe the poet feeling, the
following also tells about another feeling or experience of the poet. The poem that use
psychological approach is normally provide some feeling, experience, emotional, attitude and
problem that all of the is experienced by the character in the poem.