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
The poems in this section are about the hardships of life and the problems that people have to face, yet there is an undertone of hope in them too, the problems may not be solved, but the poems show that there is a sense of faith in human resilience.
Imagery means to use figurative language to compare one object to another object. An example that stood out to me was on lines 60-61,” He slid from their grasp like a rotten banana peel” (Rodriguez). I believe that this is an example of imagery because it is making an image in the reader’s mind comparing how his brother fell to a rotten banana peel. Another example that I would like to point out is on line 35, “ this abdomen of land” (Rodriguez). This line contains imagery because the use of the word abdomen is a metaphor and is comparing the middle of the land to the abdomen of a body. These examples helped clarify the statement and convinced me that this poem has
Each of the poems relies heavily on imagery to convey their respective messages. Often throughout each of the poems, the imagery is that of people. However, each uses similar imagery to very different, yet effective ways to explore the same
The imagery used in this verse appeals to the sense sight. This helps the reader visualise what the writer is taking about. It also allows the reader to relate and connect more to the poem.
“Home is where the heart is.” In The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros develops this famous statement to depict what a “home” really represents. What is a home? Is it a house with four walls and a roof, the neighborhood of kids while growing up, or a unique Cleaver household where everything is perfect and no problems arise? According to Cisneros, we all have our own home with which we identify; however, we cannot always go back to the environment we once considered our dwelling place. The home, which is characterized by who we are, and determined by how we view ourselves, is what makes every individual unique. A home is a personality, a depiction of who we are inside and
The three poems show exile and keening, but the poems also show tactile imagery. The Wanderer show tactile imagery in line three, “wintery seas,” describes the setting is in this poem along with the tone. The Seafarer show’s tactile imagery as well, in line nine, “in icy bands, bound with frost,” the tactile imagery in this line describes the coldness of the thoughts in the lonely man’s head. In The Wife’s Lament the tactile imagery is shown in line forty seven, “That my beloved sits under a rocky cliff rimed with frost a lord dreary in spirit drenched with water in the ruined hall.” The wife in this tactile imagery is show how her husband is suffering just
The use of simile in the last stanza ‘matchstick hands as pale as the violet stems they lived among’ is used to compare a frog to violet flowers, which are very delicate and easily broken. The innocence of childhood is painted through this visual technique as the narrator only sees the frogs being very delicate, but to the readers the simile also creates a vivid image of the condition of the ‘Frogs’/ the French. The use of first person helps to create a reminiscent tone about the narrator’s experiences, and further helps to stress the ideas of childhood innocence and the influence of war on children because the poem is written from a child’s perspective. The use of enjambment generates a conversational and personal tone, emphasizing to the readers the reality of the themes discussed throughout the poem. The use of symbolism of frogs as pets and also representing the French highlights the idea that adults saw ‘Frogs’ as insignificant or unworthy to speak about, whereas the children could not understand this adult thought, and they placed exemplary regard to the wellbeing of the
The word “homecoming” is universally associated with a celebration of the returned and is linked to feelings of happiness and anticipation. Dawe however, employs this word ironically as the “homecoming” described in the poem correlates to the death and mourning of the soldiers who fought in the Vietnam War and depicts the arrival of their nameless bodies. Through establishing this irony Dawe is about to effectively capture the brutal reality of war and highlight the emotional trauma associated with its dehumanising
The quality and importance of life are looked at by most as a valuable and great gift, but this perception of someone’s life is stated differently by the two poets, David Malouf and Bruce Dawe. The poems Suburban and Homecoming express life through the eyes of two separate groups, one being a ‘stereotypical’ individual and the other, a group of men fighting for their own lives. Poetry offers many hidden meanings within their stories, Suburban and Homecoming are no different offering two distinct takes on the meaning of life. Whether that be shown through war, or a Sunday morning after a long night out, both poems convey the emotions of life, both positively and negatively.
In the poem, “Backwards,” by Warsan Shire the poem dramatizes the conflict between the long for the past and the hatred of the present. This poem highlights the rough situation that the speaker is in as well as a need for what life was like before. One can easily see that the speaker in this poem is a child in the family, because of the context of line 3, “that’s how we bring Dad back.” This is referring to the longing for their dad before they were in the situation they currently are in. Although, there is not line to line rhyme scheme the poem is written backwards at the beginning of the second stanza. This is likely showing the reader the need for the past and emphasizing the importance of the current situation. The overall theme of this poem is showing what life was once like and what it is now.
The use of symbolism and imagery is beautifully orchestrated in a magnificent dance of emotion that is resonated throughout the poem. The two main ideas that are keen to resurface are that of personal growth and freedom. Furthermore, at first glimpse this can be seen as a simple poem about a women’s struggle with her counterpart. However, this meaning can be interpreted more profoundly than just the causality of a bad relationship.
Throughout the novel “Homecoming,” the effects of the slave trade on the characters are explored. For example, Quey, the son of Effia, feels the pressure of carrying on his father’s slave industry in the midst of struggling with his identities. According to Quey, “he was one of the half-caste children of the Castle, and, like the other half-caste children, he could not fully claim either half of himself, neither his father’s whiteness nor his mother’s blackness. Neither England nor the Gold coast” (Gyasi 55). Quey makes it clear that he struggles to find his place in the world because he could never put an identity on himself. When asked to accept a position in his mother’s village, Quey was not enthusiastic about it because he had
An anti-war poem inspired by the events of the Vietnam War, Homecoming inspires us to think about the victims of the war: not only the soldiers who suffered but also the mortuary workers tagging the bodies and the families of those who died in the fighting. The author, Australian poet Bruce Dawe, wrote the poem in response to a news article describing how, at Californian Oaklands Air /Base, at one end of the airport families were farewelling their sons as they left for Vietnam and at the other end the bodies of dead soldiers were being brought home. Additionally, he wrote in response to a photograph, publishes in Newsweek, of American tanks (termed ‘Grants’ in the poem) piled with the bodies of the dead soldiers as they returned to the
The most important means of developing the effectiveness of the poem is the graphic imagery. The images in this poem are so graphic that it could make the reader feel sick. The images in this poem can draw graphic pictures in the readers mind, such as in these lines: ?If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood/ Come gargling from the
Imagery is a good source to help the readers better understand what is happening in the poem. There are several examples of different kinds of imagery. One example is “crouching over the hot coals of desire” (Wallada 5). This shows the use of kinetic imagery and visual imagery. It shows kinetic imagery because it shows the image of a character bending over hot coals. Visual imagery is used by having the reader visualize someone bending over something. Another example of imagery being portrayed in this poem is “there may be winter rains pelting copiously down” (Wallada 13-14). Tactile imagery is used