Reddit mentions of How To Identify Plants

This book might be a good place to start.

The speaker is describing Ms. Sapphire the way a botanist would describe a flower - intimately feeling the textures, noticing shapes and smells, tasting the fruit.

The poem progresses with the transformations that Ms. Sapphire make: first as the waters of the Atlantic (or perhaps plankton with an alternative interpretation of " You’re the love that left,|the Atlantic green.|The love that left it pale with rage."), then flowers and moss, then perhaps a mermaid ("when you emerged from the sea"), then land ("The mounds of your hips,|Tall hills that kiss clouds), then fire ("eating the land"), then fruit ("a tincture bulb"), then wind ("The Atlantics breath cups my cheeks"), then crystal. Ms. Sapphire's temperament goes from sweet to angry with this progression. The speaker is also transformed by Ms. Sapphire through xyr... interactions... from presumably human to being eroded by Ms. Sapphire to sand, and finally wishing to be "sucked" by the ocean where he hopes he will meet Ms. Sapphire again in her most innocent form. The environment itself is changed by Ms. Sapphire. In general, she represents the force of nature, changing everything she touches.

I like how many transformations are going on. It's cyclical given that it's implied there will be a return back to the beginning, like the ebb and flow of waves. The transformations Ms. Sapphire make maybe can be oriented better. What I mean is that she goes from sea, to flower, to plant, to creature, to land, to fire, to fruit, to wind, to crystal, and perhaps back to liquid. I think if, for example, the fruit stage was placed after the flower, plant before flower, and crystal after land, the progression would flow more naturally.

The reason I keep saying "Ms. Sapphire" is that I think that word appears too many times. Don't get me wrong, I see it as a central word to the poem. It works four ways for me: the most obvious is that it's the color blue like water; another obvious way is that it is a gemstone; it also contains a homonym to fire; finally it begins with "sap", bringing to mind plants or fruit. It's so central, foreshadowing the transformations with a single word, that maybe the title should just be something like Sapphire, instead of the wordy You're the love that left the Atlantic green. It's amazing how much juice is contained in one word. I just feel like I'm being beat over the head with it, is all.

There's other words that repeat multiple times as well: sand, blue, suck, anger/angry, taste. Maybe consider removing the duplicates or finding synonyms, at your discretion. I personally don't think the repetition is necessary.

>She tells me so.The Atlantics breath cups my cheeks,and speaks in whispers,of love trapped in crystal.Angry,nipping my lobes,she cries for what you’re made of,what she once was.Like her, I am swallowed by you,But only until I am sand.

There's some blurring of identity in the stanza due to the mixing of pronouns and "The Atlantic[']s breath". I kinda like that.

I think the poem would benefit from being further distilled. Stick with the juice, and cut out the chafe.

I'm confused why the stanzas alternate between double and triple line breaks.

I'm confused what "wraps to the press" means.

This is very Romantic. The language (tone, form, diction) though feels stuck in the 19th century. I can imagine the author wearing similar kind of formal Victorian garb that contrast so ridiculously with the feralilty of nature.

One idea to help with "cheesiness" is to read a book on Botany. Take notes, preferably digitally so you can ctrl+f (or whatever your OS's command is) later. You'll learn "fun" words like "staminodium", and "hilum", and "corm", and "pinnule". So many words. The Best words. You'll also become more acquainted with plants in general. It makes taking hikes much more engaging too - the lenses you're equipped with will increase the resolution of perception, teasing out details. I recommend How to Identify Plants by Harrington and Durrell. It's from the 50's, but cuts right to the chase and has nice illustrations.

As other have suggested, there is likely a beginner horticulture class that can be taken at the local college.

How to Identify Plants is the first book I purchased in college, for a Intro Botany class. I don't know how seminal it is, but it gives you the proper vocabulary. It is written in simple descriptive language with hand drawn examples of the features; it is this way that you learn the difference between, for example, tomentose and hirsute or monocot and dicot(the latter two are the secondary division for most keys, and generally not actually that important in real science). At that point you can go to the library, pull out the proper plant key and get to business.

edit - God I love this book. Just got it down from the shelf and was flipping through and it reminded me that I need to find a loupe for my naturalism kit (for mushroom/plant/geo ID)