Tuesday, March 10, 2009
"Parent's Pantoum" by Carolyn Kizer
"Parent's Pantoum" by Carolyn Kizer
Where did these enormous children come from,
More ladylike than we have ever been?
Some of ours look older than we feel.
How did they appear in their long dresses
More ladylike than we have ever been?
But they moan about their aging more than we do,
In their fragile heels and long black dresses.
They say they admire our youthful spontaneity.
They moan about their aging more than we do,
A somber group--why don't they brighten up?
Though they say they admire our youthful spontaneity
They beg us to be dignified like them
As they ignore our pleas to brighten up.
Someday perhaps we'll capture their attention
Then we won't try to be dignified like them
Nor they to be so gently patronizing.
Someday perhaps we'll capture their attention.
Don't they know that we're supposed to be the stars?
Instead they are so gently patronizing.
It makes us feel like children--second-childish?
Perhaps we're too accustomed to be stars.
The famous flowers glowing in the garden,
So now we pout like children. Second-childish?
Quaint fragments of forgotten history?
Our daughters stroll together in the garden,
Chatting of news we've chosen to ignore,
Pausing to toss us morsels of their history,
Not questions to which only we know answers.
Eyes closed to news we've chosen to ignore,
We'd rather excavate old memories,
Disdaining age, ignoring pain, avoiding mirrors.
Why do they never listen to our stories?
Because they hate to excavate old memories
They don't believe our stories have an end.
They don't ask questions because they dread the answers.
They don't see that we've become their mirrors,
We offspring of our enormous children.
The pantoum is composed of quatrains where usually the second and fourth line of each stanza are repeated as the first and third of the next stanza. The meanings of the lines change with shifting punctuation even the the words remain the same. The pantoum is known for subtle shifts in meaning through the shifting punctuation and therefore new context.
In the first stanza, the speaker clearly adores their children and is in awe of how much they have grown and their accomplishments. In stanzas two and three, the tone focuses towards slight bitterness. Kizer asks "why don't they brighten up?" The line "they beg us to be defined like them" hints that Kizer resents the embarressment her children feel when she tells them to "brighten up."
Stanza four introduces a middle way that will make Kizer and her children happy, as the children stop "patronizing" and parents become "defined like them". Stanzas six and seven introduce the fact that the children will soon separate from their parents and rely on them less and less. They will "pause to toss morsels of their history" towards their parents, but that is all.
In the last two stanzas, Kizer states that the children do not understand what they will become in the future. The parents are the children's "future mirrors". Kizer uses metonymy, a part for the whole, to show that mirrors represent the future. The last line suggests that children raise their parents as much as the other way around.
The overall scansion of the pantoum has meaning within itself. The repitition of lines in different contexts give different meanings.
Where did these enormous children come from,
More ladylike than we have ever been?
Some of ours look older than we feel.
How did they appear in their long dresses
More ladylike than we have ever been?
But they moan about their aging more than we do,
In their fragile heels and long black dresses.
They say they admire our youthful spontaneity.
They moan about their aging more than we do,
A somber group--why don't they brighten up?
Though they say they admire our youthful spontaneity
They beg us to be dignified like them
As they ignore our pleas to brighten up.
Someday perhaps we'll capture their attention
Then we won't try to be dignified like them
Nor they to be so gently patronizing.
Someday perhaps we'll capture their attention.
Don't they know that we're supposed to be the stars?
Instead they are so gently patronizing.
It makes us feel like children--second-childish?
Perhaps we're too accustomed to be stars.
The famous flowers glowing in the garden,
So now we pout like children. Second-childish?
Quaint fragments of forgotten history?
Our daughters stroll together in the garden,
Chatting of news we've chosen to ignore,
Pausing to toss us morsels of their history,
Not questions to which only we know answers.
Eyes closed to news we've chosen to ignore,
We'd rather excavate old memories,
Disdaining age, ignoring pain, avoiding mirrors.
Why do they never listen to our stories?
Because they hate to excavate old memories
They don't believe our stories have an end.
They don't ask questions because they dread the answers.
They don't see that we've become their mirrors,
We offspring of our enormous children.
The pantoum is composed of quatrains where usually the second and fourth line of each stanza are repeated as the first and third of the next stanza. The meanings of the lines change with shifting punctuation even the the words remain the same. The pantoum is known for subtle shifts in meaning through the shifting punctuation and therefore new context.
In the first stanza, the speaker clearly adores their children and is in awe of how much they have grown and their accomplishments. In stanzas two and three, the tone focuses towards slight bitterness. Kizer asks "why don't they brighten up?" The line "they beg us to be defined like them" hints that Kizer resents the embarressment her children feel when she tells them to "brighten up."
Stanza four introduces a middle way that will make Kizer and her children happy, as the children stop "patronizing" and parents become "defined like them". Stanzas six and seven introduce the fact that the children will soon separate from their parents and rely on them less and less. They will "pause to toss morsels of their history" towards their parents, but that is all.
In the last two stanzas, Kizer states that the children do not understand what they will become in the future. The parents are the children's "future mirrors". Kizer uses metonymy, a part for the whole, to show that mirrors represent the future. The last line suggests that children raise their parents as much as the other way around.
The overall scansion of the pantoum has meaning within itself. The repitition of lines in different contexts give different meanings.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Villanelle --> "Mad Girl's Love Song" by Sylvia Plath
"Mad Girl's Love Song" by Sylvia Plath
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead;
I lift my lids and all is born again.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)
The stars go waltzing out in blue and red,
And arbitrary darkness gallops in:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
I dreamed that you bewitched me into bed
And sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)
God topples from the sky, hell's fires fade:
Exit seraphim and Satan's men:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
I fancied you'd return the way you said.
But I grow old and I forget your name.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)
I should have loved a thunderbird instead;
At least when spring comes they roar back again.
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)
Usually, the villanelle is composed of five tercets and a concluding quatrain. It has no set of syllables per line and has a pattern of only two rhymes. These rhymes are marked by the alternating refrain which first appears in the first and third lines of the initial tercet. The refrain lines in this poem are "I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead" and "I think I made you up inside my head". They alternate to end each tercet and both are at the end of the quartet.
The repition of the refrain lines shows the internal struggle in the narrator's head. Everything makes sense when her eyes are closed, but her dreams are the only thing she wants to live for. The cacophony of "arbitrary darkness gallops in" shows the discontent the narrator has with her disconnection with reality. This line does not flow and has a harsh discordance of sound. However, when the narrator speaks about her lover, euphony is used. She dreams that her lover "sung [her] moonstruck, kissed [her] quite insance." These pleasant-sounding combination of words shows the narrators longing for a true love.
The narrator also uses metaphors to exaggerate her longing for true love. On line 10, "God topples from the sky" and "hell's fires fade". Of course, none of this actually happens but the narrator is voicing her pain in acknowledging that her obsession is not real.
What do you think Plath is trying to say by alternating "I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead" and "I think I made you up inside my head" at the end of each stanza?
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