When a young girl becomes a woman, she will eventually lose her innocence, transforming from purity to impurity. Innocence and impurity are often seen as opposites and qualities that cannot coexist. However, William Carlos Williams suggests that passion and purity can and do coexist in his 1923 poem, "Queen Anne's Lace." The poem depicts a woman moving from pure innocence to passion, demonstrating that, although different, purity and passion can depend and flourish on each other. The poem as a whole is a metaphor of a woman towards nature, specifically a certain species of flower, which accurately represents the growth that occurs within her. Women are often compared to nature in the poem, as it represents their beauty and delicacy, just as Williams did in this poem. Queen Anne's lace is a white flower with a purple spot in the center, also called the flower's "beauty mark." Douglas Verdier of Poetry for Students points out that the flower's name alludes to the face of a queen, being beautiful and pure (189). Queen Anne's Lace is also a hardy flower that is able to thrive in many environments, supporting the fact that the woman in the poem is beautiful but strong (Stephenson). The metaphor of this flower shows man's adoration towards the beauty of woman in the poem. As the poem progresses, the flower blooms under the man's touch, representing that their passion for each other allows his spirit to blossom just like a flower. ago. Philip Jason notes the effectiveness of Williams' metaphor on Queen Anne's Lace, writing: "...it is primarily through metaphor that he transforms his observation, his still life, into a dynamic field of action that reveals life and hidden energy". Just as Jason demonstrates, the metaphor…middle of paper…rdier also elaborates on the contrasting meanings of white, saying, “Whiteness continues to permeate Williams’ canvas, suggesting perhaps that the kind of purity that dominates his scene pastoral is also essential to the type of love that this scene brings to mind” (190). Here Verdier points out that when white represents both innocence and desire, it demonstrates that passion and innocence depend on each other, since says that purity is essential to the love shown in the poem. Finally, the speaker mentions whiteness once again, saying, “wishful thinking that whiteness should be overcome –/or nothing” (Williams 20-21). This desire for whiteness was a desire of the woman, and a desire that was satisfied, or "gone beyond". whiteness, "or nothing" (Williams 21)..