"Reflective"

          I have been reading a lot of poetry recently for the poetry notebook and have found some rather interesting poems.  One such poem is "Reflective" by A. R. Ammons.  This poem has a very unique structure that really makes you think.  At first glance it may seem like a short and simple poem but then if you read closer and analyse it it is really very confusing.
               I found a
               weed
               that had a

               mirror in it
               and that
               mirror

               looked in at
               a mirror
               in

               me that
               had a
               weed in it.

          If you have ever looked in a mirror when there is a mirror or other reflective surface behind you  this has the same effect.  Weeds are typically given a negative connotation and the mirror is allowing him to see into and reflect on himself.  I believe that the fact that the original weed has a mirror inside of it symbolizes that bad things, symbolized by the weed, allow us to see into ourselves and affect our inner soul which is the mirror inside of him.   This means that the corrupt things we do will have an influence on our inner soul and personalty.  This is illustrated in the poem by the weed that he sees in the beginning of the poem being on the mirror inside him by the end of the poem.

         This connects to The Picture of Dorian Gray as this occurs to Dorian except in a quite different way.  When Dorian does something wicked, the mark, or weed, that would have been put on his soul, the mirror inside him, is put on the painting instead.  This illustrates perfectly the concept that the the evil things you do will have an effect on you, as the things that Dorian did, like killing his friends and pushing people commit suicide, have a profound impact on how his painting looks.  It becomes distorted and scarred just like the clean mirror inside of the speaker in the poem becomes marred by the presence of the weed on it. 

          When someone does something bad it corrupts them as seen in this poem where the weed, which is bad, corrupts the mirror, and in Dorian Gray with his picture.  These corrupt acts serve to help a person reflect on their character and see inside themselves.  The title of this poem, "Reflective", and the presence of mirrors in the poem demonstrate this reflectiveness and help to show that the speaker in the poem is reflecting upon him or herself.