Precis: “Thanks For Remembering Us”

In “Thanks For Remembering Us,” Dana Gioia uses a troubled tone to describe how delicate relationships can be through a key rhyme and a metaphor comparing a relationship to a bouquet of flowers. In the first stanza, there is an end rhyme with the words “blunder” and “wonder.” Gioia draws the reader’s attention to this line because it alludes to the fact that relationships can be fragile because the people in the couple don’t trust each other. However, this idea is made clearer in the second stanza. Words such as “die,” “dry,” “sickly,” and “funeral” are used to portray the dying flower. The comparison is made complete when the couple says how the flowers were “accusing us of some small crime.” The flowers reminded them of their unstable relationship. As can be see from this poem, the metaphors and unique rhymes create the uncertainty couples can sometimes feel in a relationship.