by: Margaret Atwood
You're sad because you're sad.It's psychic. It's the age. It's chemical.Go see a shrink or take a pill,or hug your sadness like an eyeless dollyou need to sleep.Well, all children are sadbut some get over it.Count your blessings. Better than that,buy a hat. Buy a coat or pet.Take up dancing to forget.Forget what?Your sadness, your shadow,whatever it was that was done to youthe day of the lawn partywhen you came inside flushed with the sun,your mouth sulky with sugar,in your new dress with the ribbonand the ice-cream smear,and said to yourself in the bathroom,I am not the favorite child.My darling, when it comesright down to itand the light fails and the fog rolls inand you're trapped in your overturned bodyunder a blanket or burning car,and the red flame is seeping out of youand igniting the tarmac beside you heador else the floor, or else the pillow,none of us is;or else we all are.
In "A Sad Child" by Margaret Atwood, she uses imagery, metaphor, and diction to depict how some women (or a girl) may feel about becoming a woman. The speaker in this poem seems to be a girl or woman describing their feelings to a younger girl about the first time she menstruated, while also telling her feelings about the treatment of females in society.
The speaker can be assumed to be a female because of the imagery used. Dolls, a dress, sugar, and a riboon are mentioned, whoch can be easiy associated with girls. GIrls are thought of as swet, having dolls, and wearing ribbons and dresses. There is the imagery of blood which can be linked to the menstrual cycle, "in the bathroom", "trapped in your overturned body", "red flame seeping out of you". The way that the speaker ran in to go to the bathroom and abruptly says" I am not the favorite child" can be associated with a girls first menstruation due to the fact that it signifies coming of age, and usually the younger children are the favorites, makin gher not be the favorite now that she has grown. The line "trapped in your overturned body" can depict how a girl feels, because the situation is out of her control because it is a normal bodily function.
In regards to ths theory, metaphor is used in the second stanza by how it says, "buy a hat. Buy a coat or pet. Take up dancing to forget." This metaphor stands for covering up one's feelings and forgetting them. These things are distractions and material objects to cover up one's feelings. This shows how the female speaker feels that she is not truly cared bout, but given things and pushed to the side, whilethe males are not given gifts and said to just "take a pill" to cover up their emotions.
Now if you think about Atwood's writing, this menstrual cycle theory for the poem fits her sarcastic nature. She describes the experience as a horrible thin, trying to make the statement that women shouyld not let things like their bodily functions hold them back and dont let males use it against them. Basically, she is hinting at the oppression of women in society.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
"Ze Followa" by Seamus Heaney
The Follower
My father worked with a horse plough,His shoulders globed like a full sail strungBetween the shafts and the furrow.The horses strained at his clicking tongue.An expert. He would set the wingAnd fit the bright-pointed sock.The sod rolled over without breaking.At the headrig, with a single pluckOf reins, the sweating team turned roundAnd back into the land. His eyeNarrowed and angled at the ground,Mapping the furrow exactly.I stumbled in his hobnailed wake,Fell sometimes on the polished sod;Sometimes he rode me on his backDipping and rising to his plod.I wanted to grow up and plough,To close one eye, stiffen my arm.All I ever did was followIn his broad shadow around the farm.I was a nuisance, tripping, falling,Yapping always. But todayIt is my father who keeps stumblingBehind me, and will not go away.
COMMENTARY
In “The Follower” by Seamus Heaney, he uses metaphors to express the speaker’s feelings about his father’s labor. However, the poem can be interpreted in different ways, due to the connotative meanings within the poem. The title of this poem is connotative, because it can mean apprentice and follower as in to literally trail behind someone or follow in their footsteps depending on which interpretation you follow, different conclusions can be made, however, the things they all have in common is that the son in the follower in the first five stanzas of the poem, however, in the last one, the father has become the follower.
The way that the speaker uses nautical imagery to express his feelings towards his father’s work on the farm, shows that he truly admires him. Just like people believe that sails are beautiful. He believes that his father working is beautiful, “his shoulders globed like a full sail strung”. The way that he says his father was “mapping the furrow exactly” shows that his father was knowledgeable about his work and knew exactly what he was doing.
Last three stanza the speaker describes how as he followed his father, he never really appreciated the work his father did, but he does now, and his father has become the follower. This is when it gets tricky, because you can interpret the way he sees his father as, that now that he is old he cannot work, so he has taken the responsibility of the farm as if it were a cycle. However, another approach is that now that his father is old, he cannot work, and there for monitors his son’s work by “following” him.
My father worked with a horse plough,His shoulders globed like a full sail strungBetween the shafts and the furrow.The horses strained at his clicking tongue.An expert. He would set the wingAnd fit the bright-pointed sock.The sod rolled over without breaking.At the headrig, with a single pluckOf reins, the sweating team turned roundAnd back into the land. His eyeNarrowed and angled at the ground,Mapping the furrow exactly.I stumbled in his hobnailed wake,Fell sometimes on the polished sod;Sometimes he rode me on his backDipping and rising to his plod.I wanted to grow up and plough,To close one eye, stiffen my arm.All I ever did was followIn his broad shadow around the farm.I was a nuisance, tripping, falling,Yapping always. But todayIt is my father who keeps stumblingBehind me, and will not go away.
COMMENTARY
In “The Follower” by Seamus Heaney, he uses metaphors to express the speaker’s feelings about his father’s labor. However, the poem can be interpreted in different ways, due to the connotative meanings within the poem. The title of this poem is connotative, because it can mean apprentice and follower as in to literally trail behind someone or follow in their footsteps depending on which interpretation you follow, different conclusions can be made, however, the things they all have in common is that the son in the follower in the first five stanzas of the poem, however, in the last one, the father has become the follower.
The way that the speaker uses nautical imagery to express his feelings towards his father’s work on the farm, shows that he truly admires him. Just like people believe that sails are beautiful. He believes that his father working is beautiful, “his shoulders globed like a full sail strung”. The way that he says his father was “mapping the furrow exactly” shows that his father was knowledgeable about his work and knew exactly what he was doing.
Last three stanza the speaker describes how as he followed his father, he never really appreciated the work his father did, but he does now, and his father has become the follower. This is when it gets tricky, because you can interpret the way he sees his father as, that now that he is old he cannot work, so he has taken the responsibility of the farm as if it were a cycle. However, another approach is that now that his father is old, he cannot work, and there for monitors his son’s work by “following” him.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Mid-Term BREAK
Mid-term Break
I sat all morning in the college sick bayCounting bells knelling classes to a close,At two o'clock our neighbors drove me home.In the porch I met my father crying--He had always taken funerals in his stride--And Big Jim Evans saying it was a hard blow.The baby cooed and laughed and rocked the pramWhen I came in, and I was embarrassedBy old men standing up to shake my handAnd tell me they were "sorry for my trouble,"Whispers informed strangers I was the eldest,Away at school, as my mother held my handIn hers and coughed out angry tearless sighs.At ten o'clock the ambulance arrivedWith the corpse, stanched and bandaged by the nurses.Next morning I went up into the room. SnowdropsAnd candles soothed the bedside; I saw himFor the first time in six weeks. Paler now,Wearing a poppy bruise on the left temple,He lay in the four foot box as in a cot.No gaudy scars, the bumper knocked him clear.A four foot box, a foot for every year.
COMMENTARY
In "Mid-Term Break" by Seamus Heaney, he uses sense 0f time and enjambment to emphasize how long the speaker's mourning of his brother's death felt. The brother spoken of in the powem can be seen as a metaphor for the dispute between Ireland and Britain. This is due to the fact that although Heaney is from Ireland, he felt that Britain and Ireland should work together as "brothers" in a sense. However, since the issues came to being, Seamus Heaney felt the separation between Ireland and Britain, which caused depression in Ireland. In other words, the death of his brother and the speaker's loss can be a metaphor for how Britain is lost to Ireland and Ireland is left with grief and violence.
Time is used in this poem to show how the speaker is depressed and empty due to the grief caused by his brother's death. The way that the speaker uses time, it shows how time just seems to go by without his brother around, because he feels empty, yet he can still remember little details from his brother's death and funeral as if it were just yesterday. "At ten o'clock the ambulance arrived" and "I saw him for the first time in six weeks". (loss of time? as in, he lost track of time due to the fact that it seems like they just go by without his brother)
Enjambment is used throughout this poem to also emphasize the emptiness and sadness that the speaker feels during the mourning of his brother's death. This is shown because as soon as he begins to re-tell his story of his brother's funeral/wake is taking place. This is because he is grieving and life just seems to pass him by without his brother.
In "Mid-Term Break" by Seamus Heaney, the speaker's situation can also be linked to Heaney's real life in another way other than in regards to the relationship between Ireland and Britain. Seamus Heaney's four year old brother actually died while he was off at college, which can clearly explain his inspiration to write "Mid-Term Break".
I sat all morning in the college sick bayCounting bells knelling classes to a close,At two o'clock our neighbors drove me home.In the porch I met my father crying--He had always taken funerals in his stride--And Big Jim Evans saying it was a hard blow.The baby cooed and laughed and rocked the pramWhen I came in, and I was embarrassedBy old men standing up to shake my handAnd tell me they were "sorry for my trouble,"Whispers informed strangers I was the eldest,Away at school, as my mother held my handIn hers and coughed out angry tearless sighs.At ten o'clock the ambulance arrivedWith the corpse, stanched and bandaged by the nurses.Next morning I went up into the room. SnowdropsAnd candles soothed the bedside; I saw himFor the first time in six weeks. Paler now,Wearing a poppy bruise on the left temple,He lay in the four foot box as in a cot.No gaudy scars, the bumper knocked him clear.A four foot box, a foot for every year.
COMMENTARY
In "Mid-Term Break" by Seamus Heaney, he uses sense 0f time and enjambment to emphasize how long the speaker's mourning of his brother's death felt. The brother spoken of in the powem can be seen as a metaphor for the dispute between Ireland and Britain. This is due to the fact that although Heaney is from Ireland, he felt that Britain and Ireland should work together as "brothers" in a sense. However, since the issues came to being, Seamus Heaney felt the separation between Ireland and Britain, which caused depression in Ireland. In other words, the death of his brother and the speaker's loss can be a metaphor for how Britain is lost to Ireland and Ireland is left with grief and violence.
Time is used in this poem to show how the speaker is depressed and empty due to the grief caused by his brother's death. The way that the speaker uses time, it shows how time just seems to go by without his brother around, because he feels empty, yet he can still remember little details from his brother's death and funeral as if it were just yesterday. "At ten o'clock the ambulance arrived" and "I saw him for the first time in six weeks". (loss of time? as in, he lost track of time due to the fact that it seems like they just go by without his brother)
Enjambment is used throughout this poem to also emphasize the emptiness and sadness that the speaker feels during the mourning of his brother's death. This is shown because as soon as he begins to re-tell his story of his brother's funeral/wake is taking place. This is because he is grieving and life just seems to pass him by without his brother.
In "Mid-Term Break" by Seamus Heaney, the speaker's situation can also be linked to Heaney's real life in another way other than in regards to the relationship between Ireland and Britain. Seamus Heaney's four year old brother actually died while he was off at college, which can clearly explain his inspiration to write "Mid-Term Break".
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