What is the interpretation of the garden path in "Patterns" by Amy Lowell?

The garden path in "Patterns" by Amy Lowell is one of the symbols used to represent the constraints of social propriety on women during the time. The poem is about a woman who has learned that her fiance has died in the war. She is on her way to a formal dance and thinks about how her loss now keeps her in celibacy.

"Patterns" was written in 1916 and is considered one of Lowell's best poems. It tells of a woman's right to desire and how she is forced into the role of a mourner without desire by a war that kills good men.