The Century Quilt Poem Summary
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). Just in the first two lines of the poem Waniek introduces two quilts and her feelings for them. Waniek describes her father’s blanket that she would sleep under, and then describes how she would play and have fun with her Meema’s Indian blanket. Her father’s blanket is just an army green blanket that would keep her warm while she sleeps. Her Meema’s blanket, however, is full of excitement and was used to play in and laugh with. By using the color …show more content…
“Whose fingers I imagine/ would caress me into the silence,”(19-20). These two lines give the reason behind the title of the poem. By giving the reader an image of the quilt lasting Waniek until death, the title “The Century Quilt” is finally brought into meaning. Other accounts of imagery are used to show how real the quilt was to Waniek, “Perhaps under this quilt/ I’d dream of myself, / of my childhood of miracles, /of my fathers burnt umber pride, / my mothers ochre gentleness,”(36-40). Waniek brings images of her parents and of her childhood and ties them into the quilt, bringing a new meaning to the poem. She sees her past and her future when she’s under the quilt, again furthering upon the idea of “The Century Quilt”. Through the use of imagery, tone, and structure, Waniek ties an ordinary everyday quilt into multiple complex meanings, not only giving the reader something to connect to, but also giving the poem an extraordinary feel to
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670 Words | 3 PagesAll this repetition has this aim, and further, reveals the ideals of socioeconomic status. The connotations of her trying to see her heritage and feel it are different from the ideals of her mother; using the quilts for everyday
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408 Words | 2 PagesThe 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.
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1338 Words | 6 Pages“the quilts are the central symbol of the story representing the connectedness of history and intergenerational tries of the family” (“everyday use”). This means that the quilts mean heritage and remind the daughters of grand mom dee. The quilts are fought over at the end of the story because of the meaning of them. One daughter wants them for everyday use and one wants them just to have them because it means heritage to her. The mother at the end of the story agrees that they should be used for everyday use.
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1283 Words | 6 Pages‘Maggie can’t appreciate these quilts!’ She said. ‘She’d probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use.’ … ‘But, they're priceless!’ ” (172).
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1149 Words | 5 PagesThis new outlook on her life caused Dee to place different values on the items with which she had grown up. She wanted to take the items as things to put on display like art hanging on a wall. Dee even wanted the cherished quilts to “hang them” (Walker, 1973) instead of using them as blankets. As she saw it, to use the quilts for their original purpose would destroy them, or as she said, “Maggie would put them on the bed and in five years they 'd be in rags” (Walker, 1973).
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