Commentary on Three Lunulae, Truro Museum Essay

In stanza six, we see the end of visiting hour, and the persona’s loss of control as he is overran with emotion. The phrase, “black figure in her white cave” creates an image of an intruder in her sanctuary. The black and white contrast suggests he is a shadow of his former self and also that he is trying to detach himself. The phrase, “clumsily rises” gives connotations of his state as he is physically affected by his feeling of loss. Furthermore, “swimming waves of a bell” is a metaphor which has connotations of water. This is used to illustrate that he is drowning in the realisation that she is dying. Finally, “fruitless fruits” is an oxymoron used to reinforce that there is no hope or going back, for her.

Duong’s decision to describe the snowflakes as “strange flowers” exposes Hang’s attachment to the landscape of her own home, and also the strangeness of this new landscape for her. The word choice of flowers and their connotation of spring provide contrast to the harsh winter. Hang’s simile comparing the snowflakes to a “luminous” childhood dream juxtaposes the description of them as “blinding shards” and “frail”, thus revealing Hang’s opinion of dreams as something rarely obtained. Surely as a child she imagined the best that might have happened, and had such optimistic hopes of what might have been. They are thus associated with sorrow by the simile, reflective of the cruel reality she faced when her dreams were suffocated as a child. The snowy landscape also triggers a more consuming flashback to a time in Hang’s childhood. Duong provides vivid imagery of the beautiful landscape of the bay - “Clouds floated like puff jade along the horizon, a line broken jagged by solitary rocks.. This endless jade-colored necklace fallen to the earth.” (Duong ) The metaphor comparing the clouds to a jade-colored necklace further emphasizes the landscape’s beauty and richness. The idea of a jade necklace, a material wealthy good, introduces the idea that the natural landscape is a gift, accessible by all. Duong emphasizes this with the subsequent sentiment that “beauty knows no frontiers, seduces without discrimination” (Duong 83). Hang

The imagery described in stanza 3 appears to revisit the stages of the speaker’s life. The school where the children are at recess symbolizes her childhood. “Fields of Gazing Grain” in line 11 implies a ripe harvest; perhaps the middle stages of her life when she was most productive. In the final line of the third quatrain, the “Setting Sun” is not only a reflection of the end of a day but also the end of speaker’s life. Perhaps it is the chilling thought of death that brings a revelation to the narrator about the thin, sheer garment she is

Leila Aboulela writes “The Museum” in a way that can make the reader feel like they are connected and present with the characters. Held in a prestigious university in Scotland, the University of Aberdeen, “The Museum” highlights many difficult challenges that can be faced in a lifetime, and that makes the story even more relatable. Leila Aboulela really knows how to capture her readers, which makes her story so memorable. Aboulela uses explicit adjectives to describe common things that advance the story even more. For example the reoccuring color blue on page 372 that evokes the sad feeling that Shadia develops throughout the story.

Though the viewers focus first on the centered figures, it is easier to first analyze the surrounding settings to understand them. The stone wall foreground and the open fields of the background each embodies one of the girl’s thoughts. The back landscape is filled with warm, airy colors of blue and orange, as if it were under a bright sun. On the other hand, the foreground’s stone walls and concrete floor has dark, cold, shadowy, earthy colors that seem to appear as if under a stormy cloud. The sunny land suggests free, pure, spacious land previous to the industrialization. Yet, the darkened foreground due to the overcasting shadows resemble the currently dirty,

Like a template. Every family had to have one of these. Families during this time did not bond or grow up together, but had been brought and constructed. Another example of sexism can be found in stanza five, as Dawe says, ‘’… and then it was goodbye stars and the soft/ cry in the corner when no one was looking…’’ This shows the audience that in this society, during this time period, men were also stereotyped as they were not allowed to cry. They DO NOT cry.

In the second stanza, the woman is talking about her pain and guilt. In "I have heard in the voices of the wind the voices of my dim killed children," she is mentally haunted by her unborn children's faint, subtle cries. She then changes from speaking to the reader to focusing and explaining to her children why she did what she did. In her explanation she says:

The third stanza contains more colorful descriptions of the women of Marblehead, but the general impression is the same. They come in a range of ages. There are old and worn women, "Wrinkled scolds with hands on hips." There are also younger, fresh-faced women, "Girls in bloom of cheek and lips." Their behavior is very much out of control; they are described as "Wild-eyed" and "free-limbed." They are compared to the women who in ancient Greek times chased the God of Wine, Bacchus, "round some antique vase."

This poem is a narrative about how nothing gold can stay. It is telling about anything perfect and beautiful and how they end up not staying. For example, when a baby is born and a mother gets to see her child for the first time, that is gold. Once it grows up it will not be innocent and perfect.

Immediately beginning stanza 2 the “stain” is introduced, which easily relates to male, female, or shared semen. Eroticism is obvious with the “horned branches” which are piecing a smooth purple sky, just how a penis “leans heavily” against a vagina. The sky can is also the barrier between the branches and that beyond the sky, just how it can be taken as the inside of the vagina, it can too be considered the outside, right before penetrating. Saying there is no light puts the situation into an even more suitable location for sex. The honey-thick stain is relevant to the texture of fluids involved in sex and its dripping from leaf to leaf and limb to limb may easily equate leaves to the delicate body of a woman, and limbs to the robust physique of a man. His fourth stanza relates to the events before and during the climax of the man. He has been “buoyed up” and his head-a name that is used to describe the tip of the penis- has knocked against the vagina-relevant “sky”. In the fifth stanza the surrealism and dreamlike dimension covered in the beginning has its attention shifted to the speaker. He wants her to see him, “dripping with nectar” and finally with his arms and hands idle, implying they were once busied up. The last stanza can either be one of true love for this woman, as he asks the question or one of disposal. He might be saying that he is done with her and doubts he’ll love her after this sex-where his connection to her was greatest.

The imagery in the poem, specifically natural imagery, helps use the reader’s senses to develop a vivid depiction of the speaker’s connection to nature and dissatisfaction with the surrounding reality. The speaker’s continued use of the “moon” reflects her attribution of feminine identity and idolistic character to the moon. As opposed to referencing herself and her personal insomnia, she uses the imagery of the moon “beyond sleep” to convey her internal struggles with insomnia and her reality. Throughout the poem, the speaker also refers to shining, reflective surfaces, such as “a body of water or a mirror”, to describe the inverted reality in which the speaker experiences reciprocated love. Reflective surfaces often invert the image that is projected into them, seemingly distorting the true nature and reality of the projected image. The speaker’s reference to this reflective imagery highlights her desire to escape the burden of a patriarchal society and assume an independent and free feminine identity. Specifically, the use of natural imagery from the references to the “moon” and “a body of water” convey the speaker’s desire to take refuge within the Earth or in the feminine identity of the Earth, Mother Earth. Feminine identities are often related and associated with aspects of nature due to the natural cycle of the menstrual period and the natural process of procreation. The speaker takes advantage of these connotations to suggest Earth and natural imagery as an escape from the man-made terrors of male dominated society. In the second stanza, the speaker uses extensive imagery to develop metaphors conveying the speaker’s experience of jealousy of the moon

Tennyson portrays the isolation of women through the reoccurring theme of Romanticism, this is shown through the poet’s constant associations with nature being the centre of the poem. The poet focuses more on the surroundings of the main character as she lives “By the island in the river…And the silent isle embowers The Lady of Shalott.” Tennyson presents the speaker to hide the details of the actual lady, her imprisonment and the curse which leads us to believe she is a mystery as the nature around her seems overpowering and consuming her. Tennyson portrays the lady in the poem to be an embodiment of a typical woman of the contemporary culture as he describes ‘A charmed web’ which the woman is ‘weaving, either night or day’. The ‘web’ can be a symbol of slavery but also a symbol of creativity and possibility. When the woman tries to turn away from the web she refuses to be a slave and ultimately

The speaker is preparing to die. The crowd is now ready to experience the grandeur the speaker thought would accompany death, but suddenly, a fly intervenes. This is a lead in to the next stanza, in which the fly interrupts the event the speaker is waiting for at the moment of their death. The speaker has almost ceremonially prepared for death. It seems as though nothing will go wrong and they will see the big even they have been waiting for, and suddenly a fly appears, spoiling the moment they hoped would come.

This is supported in the poem by the description of the moth as a "rigid satin cloth." The satin cloth can be seen like a bridal dress, suggestions of good, but the negativity of "rigid" implies perhaps on the lining of a coffin where a rigid body would lie. In the second part of the octave the speaker describes the scene again. He compares the scene and the assorted characters to "a witch's broth" (line 6), and Carter claims that this part introduces ironies regarding the observer's feelings towards the scene he saw. The speaker views those characters as "assorted characters of death and blight" (line 4). But they are there to "begin the morning right" (line 5) - a positive saying which you wouldn't exact to hear associated with death and blight. This juxtaposing of "blight" and "right" emphasizes the irony. How can the morning be "right" if the scene culminate in death?