Sarah Morgan Bryan Piatt’s poem “In a Queen’s Domain” is a realist poem because, unlike romantic poems, it does not paint an ideal image of nature and society. Piatt shows the beauty and kindness of nature by personifying flowers:
Ah! my subject, the rose, I know,
Will give me her breath and her blush;
And my subject, the lily, spreads snow,
If I pass, for my foot to crush.
She further describes the gentle and affable nature of animals:
My subjects, the lamb and the fawn,
They hide their heads in my breast;
And my subject, the dove, coos on,
Though my hand creep close to her nest.
As the poem progresses, Piatt describes the dangerous and unpredictable elements of nature to show its two opposite facets:
... my subject, the tiger, will spring
At me, with a cry and a glare.
... my subject, the snake (ah! the snake!)
Will strike me dead in the sands.
These conflicting elements portray the true condition of society as well. Society, like nature, consists of people who are loving and trusting like the “rose” and the “dove” as well as those who are evil and disloyal, like the “tiger” and the “snake.”
