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Can somebody please explain this poem?

I have to analyse this poem, but to be honest, I am not too sure what it is about, so can somebody explain it please?
It is Giant Decorative Dahlias by Molly Holden.
It is here if you want to read it:

It was a mighty monarch's child,
Her cheek was pale, her eye was wild;
Beneath a linden's shade I press'd
The maiden to my panting breast.

" I will not have thy father's throne,
I will not have his golden crown,
I will not have his realm so wide,
I will have thee, and nought beside. "

" That cannot be, " the maiden said,
" Because I am already dead;
And but by night the sods above
I burst for thee, and thy dear love. "

Thanks in advance

Reply 1

Rameesha56

The poem uses a conceit to compare the perseverence of the Dahlias specifically the 'Giant Decorative Dahlias' with the perseverence of love.
Like the Giant Dahlias are very big--the size of dinnerplates to be specific--here they symbolify both the 'monarch' i.e. the monarch of love who's spiritual child the woman is and the societal monarch who is being listed here to show the woman's worth in terms of unattainability. Another interpretation could be that the poet actually refers to God as the father of the woman as per Christian tradition. This would complement the Dahlias name as the devils eye. It would also complement the last line where the woman breaks heavens covering or 'sod' which is he outermost covering 'above' to see her lover. It also goes very well with the line where the man says:
I will not have thy father's throne,
I will not have his golden crown,
I will not have his realm so wide,
I will have thee, and nought beside.
Here the obvious question is: what monarch would so readily give away his kingdom for him to deny?
The power of human love which is made sacred above divinity in the poem is also made clearer when the woman compares the heaven with the ground and thus implies the earth to be heaven for her for the Dahlia always grows towards the sky and sunshine whereas in her current position she is 'beaneath the linden shade' where her lover grasps her. This shoes how love changes the perspective of the lover. Here the spirit of the woman is shown to have come because the eye is 'wild' just as the spirit is free and the description of her motion as bursting the sod mimicks the motion of a Dahlia as it grows which is odd because this is an eerie scene and this oddity shows how powerful love is to tranform a haunting to 'Giant Decorative Dahlias'
I hope it helps.

(edited 8 years ago)