Poetry Precis 19- "Thanks for Remembering Us" by Dania Gioia

In Dania Gioia's "Thanks for Remembering Us", the speaker uses a suspicious tone, employing diction and symbolism to hint at the tragedy of a couple in which one of the spouses cheated on the other. While this poem seems to be a cheerful one towards the beginning, as it unravels itself, the reader understands it is actually quite sad. The speaker brings up flowers as a symbol of mystery and confusion at the beginning of the poem, as they are sent to the wrong address because "our neighbor says they're not for her, and no one has a birthday near". The reader understands the element of curiosity the speaker is implementing here by his choice of words, as he says that these flowers were "signed with a name that no one knew". At this point, the reader may be suspicious but then the poem bluntly states "Is one of us having an affair?", giving the reader a clear cut understanding of what this poem is about, as well as how these unknown flowers will affect this marriage. The arrival of these flowers causes the couple to doubt each other, as they begin to think about the possibility that perhaps one of them is cheating on the other. The speaker then diverts in the second stanza to explain how the flowers begin to die and deteriorate, as one flower is "enshrouded in its sickly-sweet and lingering perfume" and "the room smells like a funeral"; Using this diction, the speaker shows how the symbol of the flowers (the affair) is bringing much tragedy into this marriage and perhaps will force this couple's relationship to "die", as their house smells like a funeral (a sad ending) due to the affair. In this poem, these flowers symbolize the obvious yet mysterious affair that is going on between one of the spouses in this marriage and the diction that the speaker uses helps create the setting necessary to keep up the suspense of the story.