Identity

In “Identity,” freedom is often associated with weeds that “stand alone, strong and free” (Line 21), while constraint is associated with flowers. In the second stanza, the speaker compares a weed to “an eagle wind-wavering above high, jagged rocks” (Lines 5-6). The flight of the eagle exists in stark opposition to the “harnessed” flowers, which are unable to take care of themselves (Line 3). The juxtaposing structure of the poem sets up freedom and constraint as binary opposites. Weeds are associated with freedom while flowers are associated with constraints.

The way the poem depicts freedom versus constraints, however, is not entirely clean. The extended metaphor of the weed as a free agent might appear problematic, but it nevertheless enriches the poem. Weeds are no more or less mobile than flowers, of course, and even though the weeds may spread their “seed […] beyond the mountains of time” while the flowers are cultivated (Lines 9-10), they nevertheless are restrained by their roots in their lifetime, just like the flowers.

If one compares the types of freedom enjoyed by the cliffside weed and the eagle in the second stanza, there is a comic effect. When the speaker says the weed is “like an eagle,” they are either mixing their metaphors or forcing the comparison, because there are very few ways that a weed can experience similar freedom to an eagle.