Rukhaya M.K

A Literary Companion

Category: American Literature (page 3 of 4)

Poetry Analysis: Gwendolyn Brooks’ “The Mother”

October 11, 2014 / / 0 Comments

“But I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child – a direct killing of the innocent child – murder by the mother herself. And if we accept that a mother can kill her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?”—Mother Teresa(National Prayer Breakfast Speech Against Abortion – 1994)

The mother is the ultimate with regards to the child. The age-old adage goes that God created mothers because He could not be everywhere all the while. Therefore,if the mother forsakes the child, that would be the gravest injustice in the world .The speaker in the poem asserts that the act of abortion would haunt her for life,and an albatross would be hung around her neck. The tone of the poem is accusatory with the persistent use of “You”. It is also to a certain extent impersonal, universalizing the issue of abortion. The line :” You remember the children you got that you did not get” is indeed a paradox. Nevertheless as one ponders on the word ‘get’,it has biblical associations. The word ’get’ may also function as a condensed form of ‘beget’. The enjambments of lines serve to illustrate the continuity of guilt.…

Poetry Analysis: Gwendolyn Brooks’ “Kitchenette Building “

October 11, 2014 / / 0 Comments

‘Kitchen’ is the metaphor for the common woman’s arena. Though it is limited, it is ‘Her’ domain, her expression of freedom. Therefore, the phrase ‘kitchenette building’ must imply the institutionalizing of the domestication of Woman. To perceive her as belonging to the kitchen, her place. Women, as the house-hold keepers are supposed to be always available, with no questions, only commands. Whilst others do have their share of holidays, the kitchen-keepers are always expected to work irrespective of circumstances, and their conveniences. They are part of the kitchenette building compartmentalized into slots, and marginalized in the process.

They assert that they are things of the dry hours. They have no outlet as day by day; they succumb to their mechanical routine. They live a mechanized life as they run on the master’s commands. Theirs’ is not a fixed plan, they live a an ‘involuntary’ plan where nothing is fixed and pre-calculated as per their norms. When the speaker says ’involuntary’, she means that the woman works on the impulses of others and not on her own impulses. They are ‘grayed in” as tough they are ageing with force, rather than with the advent of time. They are often termed as a Dream-mate of a man: but this is limited to a dream.…

Poetry Analysis: Sylvia Plath’s “Tulips”

October 2, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Flowers are emblematic of relationships. As they are given out on joyous occasions (marriages, birthdays) as well as on sad occasions(at the hospital, death).They reflect very poignantly the power of relations. It has both its positives as well as negatives. Sylvia Plath in “Tulips” portrays how she wanted to divorce herself permanently from her worldly associations as she was caught in an emotional rollercoaster ride. This explains her repeated attempts at suicide. The prescribed poem has been stated by critics, to be penned in the hospital after a typical suicide attempt. Tulips in the poem stand for “feigned empathy”. The poet Ted Hughes states that the poem was written when Sylvia Plath had suffered miscarriage and had to be hospitalized for appendectomy in March of 1961. This, he explains, is the reason for the recurring references to birth and death.

“The tulips are too excitable” asserts the poetess, as it brings with it the uncertainty of relationships. It is winter in her life, as there is gloom and frostiness all around. Though it is snowed-in, the atmosphere is peaceful as it is surrounded by white. The speaker claims that she has nothing to do with any sort of turmoil/(explosions) outside, or the hassle of relationships.…

Poetry Analysis: Sylvia Plath’s “Lady Lazarus”

October 2, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Sylvia Plath’s “Lady Lazarus” is a revolt against established social institutions and power politics.”The speaker is a woman who has the great and terrible gift of being reborn.”The only trouble of being reborn is that first you have to die. She is the phoenix, the libertarian spirit, what you will. She is also just a good, plain, resourceful woman”(Sylvia Plath). The poetess in the poem visualizes herself to be the female version of the mythical archetype, Lazarus. Lazarus lay buried for three days in the grave till Jesus raised him from the grave. (John 11:1-44). The poetess inverts gender here, and mythification with reality. Here, she also refers to her own attempts at suicide.

At twenty in 1953, Plath attempted suicide by consuming a huge number of sleeping pills and concealing herself in the cellar beneath the house for three days. She tried it again by driving off the road, and survived the ‘accident’ yet again. In 1963, however, she won/lost to Death/Life. She often identifies herself with victims of persecution in the Nazi concentration camp due to the mental agony and anguish that she experienced. Both of these victims may be emblematic of the male dominated monopoly in society that she dies in and tries to arise from each time.…

Poetry analysis: Sylvia Plath’s “Mirror”

October 2, 2014 / / 0 Comments

The Mirror is an emblem of the objective truth in the present tense in Sylvia Plath’s “Mirror.”  It is silver to the extent of perfect reflection. Therefore it is exact and precise in its projection of image. It has no preconceptions pertaining to emotion, memory or logic. In other words, it is the best Critic. For even the best critic is biased to a certain extent. Whatever it sees is swallowed by it into its frame. As it swallows images to project, it does not tell how many will ‘digest’ this ‘swallowing’ of images. It is ‘unmisted’ literally and metaphorically, says the poetess by love or detestation. It is perfectly neutral in manifestation. It reiterates that is just truthful (objective), and not cruel.It reveals how being truthful can also prove to be detrimental. It reminds us of a quote in Gregory David Robert’s Shantaram: ”Truth is a bully we all pretend to like.”

The phrase ‘eye of a little god” reminds of Arundhati Roy’s “God of Small Things.” The word ‘eye’ may denote both vision and insight. A miniature God, it is free from emotion, reason and worldly ethics. It even has its own geometry-‘four-cornered’. Most of the time of the mirror is occupied focusing on the opposite wall (or background).The wall is pink with speckles.…

Poetry Analysis: Emily Dickinson’s “This is my Letter to the World”

September 14, 2014 / / 1 Comment

Emily Dickinson’s “This is my Letter to the World” functions as an epistolary preface to her body of work. The form of the letter functions as a perfect metaphor as it an eloquent means of communication. The letter is a means of communication that has a one-to-one or one-to-many correspondence.

Erika Scheurer in her essay “Near, but Remote: Emily Dickinson’s Epistolary Voice” tells us that “while Dickinson did not value writing over speech, she did value dialogic writing and speech over monologic writing and speech. “A letter is also a more durable document than a spoken statement.” Emily Dickinson being a perfect recluse was not a person of much words. This was the perfect medium to express her innermost thoughts. Dickinson appears to be in line with Bakhtin’s notion of dialogism and Derridia’s subversion of phonocentrism.

A ‘letter’ synonymous with the word ‘alphabet’ is also emblematic of education. Emily Dickinson desires to pass on the meaningful messages that Nature imparted her with to the world steeped in worldly principles. It was well beyond the times for a woman to come up with such lofty ideals. Emily Dickinson was much ahead of her times. Which is why barring two poems, her entire volume was published only after her death.…

Poetry Analysis: Emily Dickinson’s “Success is Counted Sweetest”

September 13, 2014 / / 4 Comments

Emily Dickinson’s “Success is Counted Sweetest” has been penned in iambic trimeter with the exception of the first two lines of the second stanza. The poem highlights aphoristic truths that are universal.

In the first stanza, Emily Dickinson endeavors to define the true essence of success. The general impression is that success can be ‘counted’ by only those who have experienced it numerous times. Nevertheless, it is more precisely evaluated or counted by those who have never succeeded as they can apprehend its true value. In another poem, “I Had Been Hungry, All the Years”, Emily Dickinson writes that “Hunger-was a way / Of Persons outside Windows- / The Entering-takes away-“.

For the true experience of life, failures are inevitable. For, what we learn from our failures, success can never teach us. The alliteration with the repetition of the ‘s’ sound lays emphasis on ‘success’. Success also tastes sweeter to the person who has persevered very hard for it, than to a person who has found success effortlessly. The former is also more thankful to God, and cherishes his accomplishment. The word ‘nectar’ here implies water. However, it is perception that renders it ‘nectar’. To the thirsty ones with parched throats, a drop of water tastes as sweet as nectar.…

Poetry Analysis: Emily Dickinson’s “I Felt a Funeral in My Brain”

September 13, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Emily Dickinson’s “I Felt a Funeral in My Brain” was first published in The Poems of Emily Dickinson, Third Series in 1896.The poetess exemplifies the collapse of her abstract mental process through employing concrete metaphors.Emily Dickinson was a recluse throughout her life and incorrigibly obsessed with the concept of death. The metaphor of the funeral brings in ideas of mourning, closure, depression, blankness and inactivity. Therefore, ‘funeral’ serves as an apt metaphor to express the turmoil in the mind of the speaker. The movement of the mourners is likened to the oscillating of a pendulum making its presence felt as time does with its omnipresence.

The idea of ‘treading’ brings the impression of stamping feet, indicating a kind of pressure on the mental process and a steady increase in the same. The poem describes the onset of psychosis as the speaker struggles with her ego. The burden of the same gives the impression of sense ‘breaking through’. Here, ‘sense’ implies both sensory perception and rational thought. It reflects the quality of ‘sense’- being a fragile material that can be broken into a thousand pieces .Thereby; the poetess utilizes apt metaphors to connote the lack of coherence in her mind.

I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,
And Mourners to and fro
Kept treading – treading – till it seemed
That Sense was breaking through –
And when they all were seated,
A Service, like a Drum –
Kept beating – beating – till I thought
My Mind was going numb –

The mourners appeared to be seated around her; the sense of mobbing leaves her in a claustrophobic atmosphere.…

Poetry Analysis: Paul Laurence Dunbar’s “We Wear the Mask “

September 13, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Paul Lawrence Dunbar’s “We Wear the Mask”appeared in Dunbar’s first published volume, Lyrics of Lowly Life, by Dodd, Mead, and Company in 1896. It also was in print in the volume Majors and Minors the previous year. Having parents who lead a past of slavery, and subjected to Apartheid himself, Dunbar was aware of the internal anguish and agony the blacks went through. The mask, an extended metaphor utilized here, marks a distinction between the mask and the man. Note that he says ‘We wear the Mask” and not ‘We are the mask.’ The action is done consciously and objectively. Henry Louis Gates referred to Dunbar’s dialect verse as “mask in motion”.The black puts up a brave face, as he would prefer to break than bend to life’s atrocities. The mask portrayed grins and lies. The mask hides the blood rushing to the cheek; and shades the eyes that most eloquently gives away one’s emotions. The blacks pay a heavy debt to human astuteness submitting to the vileness of the whites. The ‘We’ refers to the collective consciousness of the black race. Though the mouth gives away emotions in all its subtlety ,the smile that forms the mask camoufaluges the ‘torn and bleeding hearts.” Likewise, the black plays his role out in the world despite the fact what lies in his heart.…

Poetry Analysis: Frances Harper’s “I Wear an Easy Garment”

September 13, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Harper, Frances Ellen Watkins (1825-1911) is an African American writer and antislavery, women’s rights, and temperance activist. Harper aimed at the upliftment of African Americans, and in particular African American women in the diverse ways that she could. Her campaigns at promoting the same has rendered her “one of the best-known and most respected black women of the 19th century.” She has restricted her literary capabilities to the causes she stood for: abolition of slavery, racial equality, suffrage and women’s rights.

The poem “I Wear an Easy Garment” is given the alternative title ‘Free Labour.’ This echoes the theme as the free labour comes across to the onlookers as an easy garment the average labourer wears. The garment may be the smile he adorns that is taken for granted by the capitalist class he works for. The speaker thus protests against the practice of slavery practiced amongst free African Americans. The garment does not project the tears of anguish over the years that the toiling slave registers. He does not exhibit the tears during the whole of his lifetime, and even during his passage to the grave. The tears are hopeless, as the slave is. He has no hope to live, for, hope is the primary requisite for those who aspire to live.…

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