Walking on "Patterns"

In "Patterns" by Amy Lowell the speaker's attitude shifts from being sensual and accepting to being angry and frustrated. Narrator notes how she walks up and down the patterned garden- paths after time and after time following the same arrangement. The developing anger and frustration over the course of the poem towards patterns that cannot be broken is relative to the theme; patterns are an omnipresent element of life that, as the narrator experienced it, …

…theme in regard to patterns as limiting elements of nature. In this poem, the narrator struggles with this notion and in the process changes her tone of voice as the poem develops. Tone of voice, from being restrained, suppressed (narrator describes bearable, and even rare and beautiful patterns), alters to being hurt and agitated, relating to inner emotions and struggles; patterns prove to be not as beautiful and blossoming, but very passive, repetitious, and unchanging.