Lullaby Silko Analysis

Whether you realise it or not, the act of representation is a constant and significant aspect of our lives. It defines and influences our perceptions of things in either a positive or negative way. One poem that I particularly admire from Harwood’s collection is ‘The violets’ , as it recognises the inevitable act of evolving without our childhood memories. The art of growing up and moving forward is only fully accomplished when we recognise and accept the experiences and explorations of our childhood. Harwood’s poetic style reflects her conservative, traditional and religious upbringing, as well as her interests in literature, philosophy and music. As one of Australia’s finest poets, and it is an honour to introduce Harwood’s latest poem anthology.

Poetic techniques displayed through the ideas, poetic features and style of the poet, reveal concepts which transcend time and place. In Gwen Harwood’s poem “the violets” her ability to interweave past and present emphasises the importance of memory in preserving ones journey though the universal experiences of growth, maturity and mortality. Similarly the poem “Mother who gave me life” demonstrates the memory of motherhood as a timeless quintessential part of the human condition. And lastly In Harwood’s “father and Child”, the connection between the father and son/daughter highlights that transformation throughout childhood is inevitable. Through the content and the language, the ways in which human experiences reveal concepts which

Poets have the power to present their perspectives of the human experience through their poetic voice. Gwen Harwood, Judith Wright, and Bruce Dawe, all Australian poets have all expressed common ideas expressed by their unique poetic voice.They also speak for those who have no voice, such as the soldiers in Bruce Dawe’s poem Homecoming and in Gwen Harwood's poem Mother Who Gave Me Life where she gives a voice to the Mothers. A key theme resinating through all of these poets poems would be their common ideas on society and the role of a mother.

Understanding a poet’s context can greatly shape a person’s understanding of their poetry. Australian poet Gwen Harwood (1920-1995) was born into a self-sufficient family full of music, philosophy and language. Harwood can be seen to draw inspiration from her lifelong influences, primarily music and her childhood, to shape her poems. The gentle meditation, The Violets, is an exploration of the existential concerns of the poet regarding the innocence and experience of childhood. The _____ Four Impromptus conveys ideas of the power of music and the human experience. Both poems display the personal themes of music, childhood innocence, human development and romanticism, reflecting these dominant experiences in Harwood’s personal life. By

Rosanna Deerchild’s poetry collection, calling down the sky is a masterful literary artwork that gives the reader an insight into aspects of Indigenous life. The stories that are told through poetry in calling down the sky are stories that were told to Rosanna from her mother, they are mainly her mother’s life experiences. In an interview with CBC, the Canadian Broadcasting Company, Deerchild explains how this book came about by talking with her mother one day. She said, ‘"I want to hear your whole story and I will tell it," Deerchild told her mother. "I will tell it and I will make sure nobody forgets it. And I will make sure that you are never told to be quiet again."’ And that's how the journey of the book started.” Deerchild exposes her

Sylvia Plath and Gwen Harwood tell two very different stories of parental relationships, Mother Who Gave Me Life praising Harwood’s mother and speaking with love and affection, whereas Plath’s Daddy is full of hate for her father. These reflections on the poet’s parental relationships are made using imagery, symbolism and tone.

Gwen Harwood’s poetry endures to engage readers through its poetic treatment of loss and consolation. Gwen Harwood’s seemingly ironic simultaneous examination of the personal and the universal is regarded as holding sufficient textual integrity that it has come to resonate with a broad audience and a number of critical perspectives. This is clearly evident within her poems ‘At Mornington’ and ‘A Valediction’, these specific texts have a main focus on motif that once innocence is lost it cannot be reclaimed, and it is only through appreciating the value of what we have lost that we can experience comfort and achieve growth.

Few relationships are as deep as those between child and parent. While circumstance and biology can shape the exact nature of the bond, a child’s caretaker is the first to introduce them to the world. And as they grow and begin to branch out, children look to their parents as a model for how to interact with the various new situations. Through allusion, potent imagery, and nostalgic diction, Natasha Trethewey constructs an idolized image of a father guiding their child through life’s challenges only to convey the speaker’s despair when they are faced with their father’s mortality in “Mythmaker.”

In author Cristina Henriquez’s novel The Book of Unknown Americans, the characterization of Alma Rivera is used to convey how grief and misery is magnified when all that a person had ever known has been taken away for some reason out of their control; it is only when they learn to give up control and forgive themselves, that they overcome the feelings of grief and guilt.

In Louise Erdrich’s Famous work of poetry, “Indian Boarding School: The Runaways”, shows how the context of the work and the author play major roles in understanding the poem from different aspects and angles to see between the lines of what we really call life. The Author Louise Erdrich is known for being one of the most significant writers of the second wave of the Native American Renaissance. She is a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians and her writing on Native American literature is seen throughout the world. Through word decision, repetition, and symbolism bringing out her incredibly fierce tones, the author recalls the hurt and enduring impacts of Native American children being forced to attend Indian boarding schools. These schools emerged of a post-Civil War America in an effort to educate and also “civilize” the American Indian people.

    Leslie Marmon Silko is a Native American from New Mexico and is part of the Laguna tribe.  She received a MacArthur "genius" award and was considered one of the 135 most significant women writers ever.  Her home state has named her a living cultural treasure.  (Jaskoski, 1)  Her well-known novel Ceremony follows a half-breed named Tayo through his realization and healing process that he desperately needs when he returns from the horrors of World War II.  This is a process that takes him back to the history of his culture.

In the poem ‘Moon’, Kathleen Jamie explores themes of abandonment, loneliness and disconnection. She does this by utilizing a clearly dysfunctional relationship between a mother and child. The child replaces the either mentally or physically absent mother with the presence of the moon. To explore the emotional distance between child and mother, the author uses dark and light imagery to empathize the child’s loneliness and to evoke the scene of a parent visiting they child late at night. Personification of inanimate objects illustrates the detrimental effects the unavailable mother has on the child’s mental wellbeing. The poem ends with dialogue from the protagonist, the child, pointing out that the moon is not her mother, as if to be

In this stylistic analysis of the lost baby poem written by Lucille Clifton I will deal mainly with two aspects of stylistic: derivation and parallelism features present in the poem. However I will first give a general interpretation of the poem to link more easily the stylistic features with the meaning of the poem itself.

Silko is similar in nature to post modern writing due to her social commentary and ambiguous nature. However, I would have to say that she is really in a class by herself.

“Lullaby” is a short story that first appeared in a book entitled Storyteller in 1981. This was a book written by Leslie M. Silko that uses short stories, memories, poetry, family pictures, and songs to present her message. The book is concerned, in general, with the tradition of story-telling as it pertains to the Native American culture.