Home by warsan shire poetic devices

Engl 100 [“The Uses of Indigenous Literature” and Poetry

Dr. Sabujkoli bandopadhyay

Agenda

Key Terms: ALLEGORY, METAPHORE, SYMBOL, IMGERARY, ANALOGY

“The Uses of Indigenous Literature”

“I’M HOME Again”

Dereck Walcott’s “Love After Love”

Mary Dorcey’s “Parting”

Key terms

ALLEGORY : narrative with two levels of meaning, one stated and one unstated

METAPHOR: Metaphor is a figure of speech that makes an implicit, implied, or hidden comparison between two things that are unrelated, but which share some common characteristics. Ex:

“Busy old fool, unruly sun, Why dost thou thus, Through windows, and through curtains call on us?”

Simile: A simile is a figure of speech that makes a comparison, showing similarities between two different things. Unlike a metaphor, a simile draws resemblance with the help of the words “like” or “as.”

“I wandered lonely as a cloud that floats on high o’er vales and hills.”

Symbolism: Symbolism is the use of symbols to signify ideas and qualities, by giving them symbolic meanings that are different from their literal sense.

“In the spring, I asked the daisies If his words were true, And the clever, clear-eyed daisies Always knew.

Now the fields are brown and barren, Bitter autumn blows, And of all the stupid asters Not one knows.”

Key terms

ANALOGY:An analogy is a comparison in which an idea or a thing is compared to another thing that is quite different from it. Metaphors and similes are tools used to draw an analogy.

“Read from some humbler poet, Whose songs gushed from his heart, As showers from the clouds of summer, Or tears from the eyelids start.”

His Poems are being compared to summer showers or tears.

imagery

Imagery directs to The use figurative language to represent objects, actions, and ideas in such a way that it appeals to our physical senses

Example:

“The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep …”

“The Uses of Indigenous Literature”

Indigenous literature and culture address a heterogenous body of work; indigeneity is a diverse concept and includes population groups from the north and south Americas, Asia, Africa, and Oceania.

“American Indian” – an identity category based in shared history and politics

Indigeneity has multiple connotations but there is a always a relationship between people and place

Indigenous literature often addresses this relationship between people and places

Indigeneity: “the various ways that a people relate to a place they originally occupied, to one another in kinship and language, and to history and political structures can provide a robust appreciation of Indigenous identities, with emphasis on the plural”

Lee maracle [1950 – present]

“I’M Home AGAIN”

First published in a collection - Sing: Poetry from the Indigenous Americas. By Allison Adelle Hedge Coke. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2011. 352 pages.

Prominent Literary devices: imagery, personification, symbolism and refrain

Reclaiming history: “The story of this corridor belongs to Suquamish boatmen ferrying families from one end of its territory to the other.”

It is a political poem: engages with the politics of narrative and nation building – “Conquest silenced these boatmen stilling the story of canoes for a time to waken in the first year of my birth.”

“I’m home again”

The poem repeats the line “I’m Home Again.” this repetition is a literary device called refrain.

Refrain: a phrase or line recurring at intervals. (N.b. the definition does not require that a refrain include the entire line, nor that it recur at regular intervals, though refrains often are and do.

The journey is symbolic in the poem because it is a journey towards re-discovery of the indigenous past

West wind

West wind’s grass dance

Issues forth promise

Not dulled by repetition

East wind pulls up belief

Re-searches the world of grass

Nurtures winded promise

Grass blades succumb to north wind’s song

Trees surrender to being buffeted by cold

Stilled by winter’s sleep

South wind exalts

Pulls water in small miracles

From the edge of dreaming rivers

In this ceremony

Of wind song and dance

New life is born

Use of Personification

“west wind” is a poem in free verse

“West wind” uses personification as a literary device

Personification: personification is the projection of characteristics that normally belong only to humans onto inanimate objects, animals, deities, or forces of nature; the use OF PERSONOFICATION inserts more meaning into the inexplicable things like forces of nature.

Literary and poetic terms

Speaker - the "I" of a poem, equivalent to the "narrator" of a prose text. In lyric poetry, the speaker is often an authorial persona

speech act - the manner of expression (as opposed to the content). Examples of speech acts include: question, promise, plea, declaration, and command.

Tone - the speaker’s or author’s attitude toward the reader, addressee, or subject matter. The tone of a poem immediately impresses itself upon the reader, yet it can be quite difficult to describe and analyze

Diction - word choice, specifically the "class" or "kind" of words chosen

end-stopped line - a line that ends with a punctuation mark and whose meaning is complete.

enjambed line - a "run-on" line that carries over into the next to complete its meaning.

Literary and poetic terms

Stanza - a “paragraph” of a poem: a group of lines separated by extra white space from other groups of lines

Topos - a traditional theme or motif

Valediction - an act or utterance of farewell [you can see it prominently in the poem “parting”]

Derek Walcott (1930-2017)

Born on the island of Saint Lucia, a former British colony in the West Indies

Since the 1950s Walcott divided his time between Boston, New York, and Saint Lucia

RCEIVED THE NOBEL PRIZE (LIT.) IN 1992

“love after love”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_3QbH_aNmc

First published in 1976 in the book Sea Grapes

Love After Love was inspired by “George Herbert's Love (III),” a poem published in 1633, which was a religious poem, all about accepting love

It is an unusual love poem which concentrates on loving the self, the inner self, following the break down of a relationship

main theme is that of becoming whole again through self-recognition, a kind of healing that works by self-conscious invitation

“love after love”

Tone: The tone is gentle, conciliatory and instructive. The speaker is reassuring the reader throughout that all will be well in the end, it's a matter of time and willingness to accept.

Imagery: images are those of an individual entering, opening a door of a house and facing their own image in a mirror. This is a positive visual, there are smiles and even some joy.

Language/Diction

Perhaps the most notable aspect of the language used is that of tenses: the poem covers the past, present and future.

First stanza

The time will come when, with elation you will greet yourself arriving at your own door, in your own mirror and each will smile at the other's welcome,

Does not rhyme

this is a reassuring statement

Advice coming from someone who knows from experience

Mary Dorcey’s “Parting” https://inpressbooks.co.uk/pages/poem-of-the-month-parting-by-mary-dorcey

Mary Dorcey [1950 – present]

Irish poet, short story writer and novelist

a lifelong activist for gay and women’s rights [The first Irish woman in history to advocate for LGBT rights]

a member of Aosdána, the Irish Academy of Writers and Artists and is a Research Associate at Trinity College

Dorcey, Mary. “Parting”

A NARRATIVE POEM

FOCUSES ON THE LAST FEW MOMENTS SHARED BETWEEN A PARENT AND A CHILD

Reflects on the shared moments

Tone: Not anger OR frustration but an acceptance of the inevitable

RELEVANCE OF POETRY IN LIFE: “one or two of the poems that by some trick had survived the ravage of body and brain”[STANZA 10]

A NEW BEGINNING = IT IS FILLED WITH PROMISE and struggles of survival, ROOTED IN HISTORY, needs nurturing

Contrast AMONGST East Wind, West Wind, NORTH WIND AND SOUTH WIND

West Wind = passion, new promise, hope

East Wind= tradition, wisdom and nurturing of old promise

North Wind = survival, discipline

Guidelines for the “poetry essay”

Focus your essay on Lee Maracle’s “I am Home Again”

The essay should be descriptive or expository in nature

Your Essay should refer to the article “The Uses of Indigenous Literature”

The essay should be typed [times new roman/ 12 font/ double spaced]

On the top left corner: write your name, instructor’s name, course title and date

example: Jane Smith

Dr./Prof. John Doe

engl 100

Day Month Year

guidelines

On the top right corner insert your last name and page number

Your essay should have a title

Use quotations for the title of the poem throughout the essay and put the line number in bracket when you quote a line

AT THE END, ADD “WORKS CITED” AND CITE YOUR POEM.

EXAMPLE:

“Globe Poetry: Home by Warsan Shire.” The Globe and Mail, 22 Mar. 2018, www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/home/article27608299/.

Atwood, Margaret. “you fit into me.” power politics. The house of Anansi press limited, 1971.

Walcott, derek. “love after love.” Collected Poems, 1948–1984. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1987.

Dorcey, MARY. “PARTING.” To Air the Soul, Throw All the Windows Wide: New & Selected Poems. Salmon poetry, 2016.

Maracle, Lee. "Two Poems." Manoa, vol. 25 no. 1, 2013, pp. 17-20. Project MUSE, , doi:10.1353/man.2013.0012

guidelines

TRY TO ADDRESS THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS IN YOUR ESSAY:

What is the subject of the poem? What is the topos? WHAT IS THE TONE OF THE POEM? WHAT KIND OF LITERARY DEVICES, STRUCTURES AND STYE ARE BEING USED TO CONVEY ITS MEANING AND EMOTION?

REFLECT ON THE “The Uses of Indigenous Literature” AND COMMENT ON THE PURPOSE OR FUNCTION THIS POEM

FINALLY, WHAT WAS MOST NOTICABLE ABOUT THE POEM AND WHY