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Theme Of Homecoming Collection Poem

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Angela Gabrielle Fabunan’s “Homecoming Collection” is a collection of eleven poems that placed third in the Poetry in English category of 2016’s Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature. Fabunan chose to center the poems on the theme of home because of her early inspiration from the picture books that she received from her mother in balikbayan boxes when she returned home from her travels. She was inspired by the balikbayan culture or idea of going to and from the homeland as well as the definition and concept of home. While all the poems embody the theme of home, they each tackle different aspects and topics. Some are centered on the loss of the innocence of women, even symbolizing the concept of rape, such as hanachurisato, In a sea …show more content…

In terms of sight, some examples of imagery seen in the poems are the following; from hanachurisato, the line “cherry blossoms swirl over and over in streaks of pink around the little girl, thirteen… standing in the street in Queens, NY, next to a temple,” as well as “the glint of the edges of the plates in the sink after they’ve been soaped and scrubbed clean,” from Picket Fence. The poems also feature imagery that appeal to taste such as the line “place your lips ‘round your thumb, as if you’re suckling, then slowly pull it out, leaving a salty aftertaste in your mouth,” from Float and the line “the punch is spiked, as always the bitterness of alcohol is evident even when the sweetness of the sugars circle in my tongue,” from The Dance. Lines that allude to the sense of hearing are “listen to her timbre like a sunrise vigorous recounting of long-gone days” from Lola and “my words speak from my own soprano an aria of the blurring of grey to grey” from History. Examples of imagery that appeal to touch are “the body freezes caught between the shadows of the cavernous mouth of the sunrise, reminiscing the chill breeze of Queens, New York” and “atop a mango tree, hands sticky from sap” from Bansa. Finally, an example of imagery that appeals to smell is the line “the smell of rubber soles in the sun” from …show more content…

In line with Antonio Soria de Veyra’s definition of literature, that it must elicit the suspension of the demand for immediate intelligibility, Fabunan’s “Homecoming Collection” perfectly exhibits this as each of the poems prompts critical thinking and requires deeper analysis in order to be understood. The poems express meanings much deeper than meets the eye and rely heavily upon the use of symbolism to portray their themes. Fabunan uses these symbolisms as well as various forms of figurative language in order to imply the themes of home, childhood, goodbyes, love, and even

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