Daisy - “Daisy”
The daisy designates child-like approachability. Alice Oswald declares, “ I will not lie small enough under her halo/to…/find/ out her friendliness.” The daisy is openhearted and sociable; a person would be cajoled by its desirability.
Summer - “Daisy”
Alice Oswald observes, “because she( daisy) is more/summer-like more meek/than I am I will push my nail/into her neck and make/a lovely necklace out of her green bones.” The summer embodies exquisite feminine decorum. The daisy is so placid that it would not repel the speaker’s endeavors to appropriate her “green bones.”
Stinking - “Stinking Goose-foot”
Alice Oswald’s speculates the cause of the Stinking Goose-foot’s odour: It “has no bath/keeps his socks in a bag/that he hangs on a nail by the door.” Oswald personifies the Stinking Goose-foot as a filthy male who has an aversion for hygiene. The motif of stinking oversimplifies men’s propensity to overlook elegance.
Slugs - “Stinking Goose-foot”
The slugs are emblems of the stinking-Goose feet’s horridness: “In the wet season, in the wasteground,/ poking around with a spade, you’ll see him/put slugs in a bag/ which he pops in his mouth.” The slugs are not scrumptious; hence, the Stinking-Goose feet’s tendency to consume them ardently during the wet season is despicable.
