Great Regulars: In "The Violets," the speaker relates

a tale that accounts for there being no violets growing in a certain land. A traveler asks the locals, why there are no violets in the vicinity, and they responded that there used to be violets growing there but once upon a time the violets made the announcement that "Until some woman freely gives her lover / To another woman / We will fight in bloody scuffle."

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Crane's 'The Wayfarer'

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Three days later after an apparent change-of-heart, the poet returned with a different kind of poetry which [Faris] Sanabani describes as "the most beautiful poetry I have ever seen." A poetry "that now condemned violence and promoted peace and tolerance."

[Amin] Al-Mashreqi says, "The Yemeni people are very sensitive to poetry--especially traditional poetry like this. If poetry contains the right ideas and is used in the right context, then people will respond to it because this is the heart of their culture."

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Poetry against Terrorism

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Unlike the perfumed rose, the canker roses have only the outward beauty. They are not sought after because their beauty exists only in the outward appearance of their petals. They do not exude their inward beauty. The cankers "[d]ie to themselves."

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Shakespeare Sonnet 54

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The riddle remains a riddle, but it is instructive for language users, especially for poets: the use of "when" as an adverbial conjunction causes an ambiguity that should be revised by using a more specific term.

[Walt] Whitman, who is so savvy in most of his poetic language use, really fumbled it here by repeating the adverbial conjunction "when" four times, when he obviously means "after." It was, in fact, after he had heard the astronomer, after he had seen the numbers, after he has observed the charts, and after he heard the others applauding the lecturer that he grew "tired and sick" and decided the leave.

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Whitman's Learn'd Astronomer

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