Most people live their lives in a pattern.
Some people trudge to their daily jobs, while others trot off to school.
These patterns, however, can be easily broken by an interruption in one's daily ritual. The patterns followed by the woman in Lowell's story, are unexpectedly brought to an end with the tragedy of her lover's death. This poem contains several patterns. There is a pattern in this woman's dress, a pattern with water, and patterns with the garden. In the broader picture, all the smaller patterns form the larger pattern that this woman follows until the unfortunate death of her lover.