Lesson 31.
1. As the title tells us, this poem is written in a form called a sestina, first used by a French troubadour in the twelfth century. In describing the prosody of Alvarez’s poem, you will be describing a sestina. Hint: Instead of looking for a rhyme scheme, look for a pattern in the repetition of the last word of each line. The last three lines of a poem are called the envoy.
- Sestina’s have six stanza’s that consist of six lines, and an envoy at the end. The six words at the end of the stanza’s are “nombre, closed, English, Spanish, say” and “words”. They are all repeated in each stanza at the ends, but in different orders. The orders of the stanza’s are as follows:
Stanza 1-abcdef
Stanza 2-faebdc
Stanza 3-cfdabe
Stanza 4-efbfad
Stanza 5-deacfb
Stanza 6-bdfeca
The envoy has all of those words in them, the ending words of the envoy go :bfb?
2. In the first stanza, what is the effect of personification and allusion? What is the Spanish counterpart to each? Sum up the meaning of the stanza.
- The effect of the personification of English being the “snow, blonde, blue-eyed, gum chewing” automatically shows her conflict with the English language by being stero-typical. She refers to the national anthem when she talks about the light coming through the persianas. She also translates words from Spanish to english, and there is one first word she can’t.
3. What mood or feelings are evoked in stanza two? How does language create this mood?
- The use of names with Spanish sounds, and the use of words like “warm” and “soothing” help to creat the mood of peace and safety. As if she was in a Spanish speaking area, where she doesn’t feel alien. Also the words like “sun, earth, sky, and moon” create a very peaceful setting.
4. What do we learn in stanzas two and three about the difference between names and vocabulary words? How does the example of the plant called the morivivir help illustrate this gap? What does the metaphor of the genii in the bottle tell us about the nature of language?
- We learn that names do not tell us much at all. They simple put a title to something, and don’t necessarily describe much. Saying something such as “whose leaves closed when we kids poked them” better describes the word with the name.
5. In stanzas four and five, why does the speaker invoke Gladys and Rosario from her childhood? How is her childhood sensitivity to words inextricably bound to Spanish, her first language? What is significant about the allusion to Adam, the first man?
- She involves Gladys and Rosario because they were obviously important in her life. She shows great sensitivity to her first language, Spanish. The significance of the first man, Adam is that he was one of her first teachers.
Filed by tittle at March 6th, 2008 under Uncategorized
Good work