The Century Quilt Poem

Poetry Analysis “The Century Quilt” is an extraordinarily meaningful poem, revealing the feelings and thoughts Marilyn Nelson Waniek, the author of the poem, has for a quilt that has built memories from her past, and caused her to ponder the future. Through Wanieks use of imagery, tone, and structure, the meaning of the quilt is revealed to the reader by exploring the speakers mind. This poem immediately opens with a statement towards the tone. “My sister and I were in love/ with Meema’s Indian blanket,” (1-2).

Erdrich’s use of strong imagery and sensory language leads to striking and vivid diction in her poem. Painting a picture of what this tragic scene looked like while she also gives light to the actual situation going on, asserts the story Erdrich is trying to get across. She begins with “The stream was

The tying point of “Myth” is the repetition of lines from the being to the end to give emphasis of the

June Jordan’s poetry is known for its immediacy and accessibility as well as its interest in identity and the representation of personal experiences. Her poetry is often deeply autobiographical, political and often displays a radical, globalized notion of solidarity amongst the worlds oppressed. “Poem about my rights” by the poet, June Jordan can be seen as spoken word poetry rather than page poetry where oral performance and repetition are used to convey her feelings and messages to the listeners. Poetry can be divided into two groups; written poetry and spoken word poetry. Written poetry, also known as page poetry, is written and is analysed by the reader.

In the poem "Coal," Audre Lorde explains her understanding of how she interacts with herself then, with the society. She wrote the poem in the first person in a free verse style. In the sentence, "There are many kinds of open"(4), Lorde brings up the ambiguity of human personality. She tries to show how something pure and obvious on the first sight can be complex and unclear at the same time.

The poem, “The Century Quilt”, by Sarah Mary Taylor demonstrates the meaning of The Century Quilt through the use of tone, imagery and symbolism. This complex quilt has a way of bringing family together through means of remembrance, as the quilt will be passed on and on. Symbolism in this poem is most prominent in the title itself. “The Century Quilt” makes its implication of being passed on by the word, century. A century is a long period of time and within that time period the quilt will have been passed down through means of connecting with family.

Alice Walker uses narrative pace and diction to prepare the trade of what might just be a very gruesome ending. Throughout the short story she uses positive words to contrast the ending and the pace she uses gives a bigger impact towards what the main character Myop is about to experience. The first element I noticed was the contrast between the use of positive words in the beginning and negative words in the end. Throughout the short story Alice uses words like “skipped lightly” which gives us a sense of joy and happiness that is portrayed through Myop. And in the end she gives a sense of fear and wonder by using words like “The air was damp, the silence close and deep.”

Irony is used by New Criticism as a literary device to give the literature a sense of complexity and deviation. As seen in Texts and Contexts, one of the main characteristics that instills effective work in New Criticism is the ability to be complex, even when seeming simple (Lynn 55). In New Criticism, irony is used as a figure of speech where the speaker 's implication is partially said and partially not said, almost making the reading subjective. The two statements that the speaker have said, and not said are usually in contrast of eachother.

Trying To Name What Doesn’t Change By Naomi Shihab Nye Introduction Naomi Shihab Nye is an American novelist and poet born in 1952. She is mostly known for her poetic works that looks at ordinary events in life from a different and interesting perspective. Her approach has been the use of events, people and objects to pass her messages. In this paper, the main focus is on her poem ‘Trying to Name What Doesn’t Change’ which was written and published in 1995.

“Bishop’s carefully judged use of language aids the reader to uncover the intensity of feeling in her poetry.” Elizabeth Bishop’s superb use of language in her introspective poetry allows the reader to grasp a better understand of feeling in her poetry. Bishop’s concentration of minor details led to her being referred to as a “miniaturist”, however this allows her to paint vivid imagery, immersing the reader in her chosen scenario. Through descriptive detail, use of metaphor, simile, and many other excellently executed stylistic devices, the reader can almost feel the emotion being conveyed. Bishop clearly demonstrates her innate talent to communicate environments at ease.

Adah is very talented with language. This is showed in the early chapters when she quotes Emily Dickinson’s poem in her narrative or her ability to spell backward. Adah did not speak much until she got her limp fixed. She likes to read and write her own poems when she was in the Congo. Due to Adah ability to play with words, she helped reveal a lot of the profound connotations.