This rhythmic poem gives the feeling of a softly sung song of satisfaction and gratefulness. It contains a definite “AB” pattern throughout its seven stanzas. Its uneven left margin contains lines beginning with capitalized words emphasizing the importance of those words. Each line starts after a pause made with commas, semicolons, dashes, etc., further breaking up a line to give it meaning. The words “learned how to kiss ad be merry – an Education left better unsung” emphasize the importance of what the lady learned and how she learned it, the very meaning of the poem. These features carry the mood along, making the feelings received from this poem flow through its words and their meanings.

This flow helps to give a feeling of satisfaction which grows into a feeling of fulfillment and contentment as the little old lady speaks of her life’s experiences. She explains how she has done it all and doesn’t regret any of it. The title helps to express what she has done with her life. "Lavender Silk” is the color and material of her wardrobe; a wardrobe of a lass of the evening. She admits that she fell into the habit of love” with the help of a “local Don Juan”. Her habit was having regular sex. Silk is a fabric that can be afforded with such income. She also states twice that she enjoyed her men. “There was nothing more fun than a man!” She is thankful for the life she had and didn’t expect anything more or less. She’s “made her bed” and lived with it without complaining or looking at and feeling embarrassed or ashamed. She’s thankful for the small joys in her life as she comes to the end of her life.

The first line of this poem tells that the little old lady has passed the age of ‘seventy-seven’. In he diminishing, dying days she thinks about her life and what she got out of it. Her diminishing, dying days are made apparent when she says that she will lose her “bloom” in the Fall, “come August”. The words “abatement” and "passing from Summer to Fall” further help to paint the picture of a dying woman. Like the weather and outdoor plant life during this time, she passes from a beautiful living woman to a dying woman, falling from beauty. She will lose the rosy color in her cheeks like Fall leaves. They lose their green color and change to rusty colors as they die until they fall from the trees. Like the outdoor plant life, she has gone through good times and bad times. She has experienced “zephyr” (warm west winds), raw gust (cold winds), “(symbolical) flood” (rough waters), and “simoom” (hot dry wind with dust like in Africa). These symbolize the good and bad times. “The shabby” and ”bitter” describe bad times as they override the better times, the “splendid” and “sweet".  Even still, she would repeat her life over again the same.

The little old lady in this poem does not regret how she led her life and wouldn’t change any part of it. “Regret is no part of my plan.” “Contrition is hollow and wrathful.” She is not sorrowful for any bad. Her contrition lacks value. Wrath is the apparition of a living person seen just before death. It would be unusual and unexpected of her to feel bad about her life. She leaves the reader with a feeling of awe and thankfulness. The message is to count blessings. Never look back at the bad; remember the good. Look ahead and be content with life as it is.

Written in 1989.