English Deutsch Français Italiano Español Português 繁體中文 Bahasa Indonesia Tiếng Việt ภาษาไทย
All categories

The poem "grandfather says" by Ai

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/16453

-Discuss the relationship between the Visual, Auditory, and Thematic elements.

- the poet uses visual elements of the text, such as enjambment, stanzas or verse-paragraphs, formal lines or informal ones, etc. Why? How does that relate to the experience of reading the poem.

- the poet uses meter and rhyme to establish a varied cadence and pattern of sound. What sort of emphases or direction does that create?

- the themes, images, metaphors, and conceits (extended metaphors) conjure ideas, emotions, and concepts. To what end? And how has the poet used the visual and auditory elements to build on the thematic ones?

2007-12-18 15:35:39 · 3 answers · asked by Anonymous in Arts & Humanities Poetry

3 answers

The whole poem is an extended metaphor.
Note that the poet uses all five senses: smell, hear, sight, taste, feel.

*
RUNNING COMMENTARY

Grandfather Says
by Ai

"Sit in my hand."
I'm ten.
I can't see him,
but I hear him breathing
in the dark.
********Note that the grandpa is the one who speaks those opening lines to the speaker who is ten years old. It is dark and the speaker cannot see him but can feel him breathing Huff..huff..huff!!

It's after dinner playtime.
We're outside,
hidden by trees and shrubbery.
************ They've had evening meal and for ten year olds, it's time to play outside the house. Hence they (and sister and grandpa) step out to play by the nearby trees.

He calls it hide-and-seek,
but only my little sister seeks us
as we hide
and she can't find us,
as grandfather picks me up
and rubs his hands between my legs.
********* "He" refers to Grandpa. He calls this game "hide and seek" (popular among kids) although the speaker's younger is the only one who plays the seeker. As they are about to hide from little sis so she can't find them, grandpa picks up the speaker and his hands rub between her legs.

I only feel a vague stirring
at the edge of my consciousness.
I don't know what it is,
but I like it.
It gives me pleasure
that I can't identify.
******The speaker only feels the rubbing vaguely at the back of her mind but although she has no idea what it is, it is a pleasant sensation.

It's not like eating candy,
but it's just as bad,
because I had to lie to grandmother
when she asked,
"What do you do out there?"
"Where?" I answered.
*******The sensation is not exactly akin to that of candy (this is a simile) but just as bad: seems the speaker often lied if she liked taste of candies! And just as it happens with pleasant taste of candy, she lies to her grandma when she asks, about what she was doing out there. Where?, she replies.

Then I said, "Oh, play hide-and-seek."
She looked hard at me,
then she said, "That was the last time.
I'm stopping that game."
******** Oh just playing hide and seek but the grandma looked unconvinced. The she said 'that was the last time. I want to stop that game' (This is a loaded reply, metaphorical, think about it keenly).

So it ended and I forgot.
Ten years passed, thirtyfive,
when I began to reconstruct the past.
****** so the game of hide and seek ended and the speaker forgot about it. Ten years passed, then thirty-five when she began to revisit her past.

When I asked myself
why I was attracted to men who disgusted me
I traveled back through time
to the dark and heavy breathing part of my life
I thought was gone,
but it had only sunk from view
into the quicksand of my mind.
*******She started wondering why she was attracted to men who disgusted her. (This is the turning point). So she dug deep into her memory to recall everything during her growth into adulthood. She went back, reflectively " through time/
to the dark and heavy breathing part of my life" (Here's metaphor: as if life can breathe). She reflected about part of her life that she thought had gone for good but it was simply hidden from view, just "only sunk from view
into the quicksand of my mind" (another idiom/imagery, metaphor here: aspect of life 'sunk' from view into " the quicksand of my mind".

It was pulling me down
**** It refers to this strange memory in her mind as she digs into her past

and there I found grandfather waiting,
his hand outstretched to lift me up,
naked and wet
where he rubbed me.
********* And deep there in memory, she encountered her grandpa (ideally just like when she was ten) waiting. His hands were stretched out ready to lift her up as he had done when she was ten. Then, "naked and wet, where he rubbed me" (double meaning here: the granny or that spot he had rubbed?? Think about it)

"I'll do anything for you," he whispered,
"but let you go."
And I cried, "Yes," then "No."
"I don't understand how you can do this to me.
I'm only ten years old,"
and he said, "That's old enough to know."
******The grandpa 'whispers' (note the word choice) he will do everything for her except letting her go away (from him) as he had done when she was ten!! And the speaker cried YES (then when she was ten) but NO (now that she is an adult.

That last line connects so well with the first line.

Grandpa urges:"Sit in my hand."
Speaker: "I don't understand how you can do this to me.
I'm only ten years old,"

Can you unpack it now?? There was an intimate affair between the speaker and her Grandpa. Try to unpack the other meaning.

***
Addition:

Note that the poet uses all five senses: smell, hear, sight, taste, feel.

A. Auditory: instances of verbal discussion like,
"Sit in my hand."
I'm ten.
-----
"What do you do out there?"
"Where?" I answered.
Then I said, "Oh, play hide-and-seek."

B. Visual: instances of sight like,
I can't see him,
--------
she can't find us

The poet experienced a certain unique feeling when her grandpa touched her when ten playing hide-and-seek with sister.
Thirty five years later when an adult, she experiences that unique feeling when faced with different issues. She flashes back or rewinds her memory to when she was ten and

there I found grandfather waiting,
his hand outstretched to lift me up,
naked and wet
where he rubbed me.

It is as if the present challenges have answers buried deep in memory. There is the theme of "nostalgia" and wistful feelings but note that the speaker said NO and says NO now to this inexplicable state of affairs.

The whole poem is an instance of extended metaphor. Something happened when the speaker was ten. Something happens thirty five years later. The two are compared and the second has its in the first.
Explore it along that line.

good luck

.

2007-12-19 01:21:00 · answer #1 · answered by ari-pup 7 · 0 1

Hide And Seek Poem Analysis

2016-10-04 21:51:52 · answer #2 · answered by rooker 4 · 0 0

I don't believe Sylvia Plath's poem "Mirror" has double meanings or is a metaphor for something - instead it is about the affect a mirror has on people, especially on women over their lifetimes. The mirror in the poem has a consciousness, it reflects faithfully, and does not lie. It is everywhere that a image is reflected, but has a finite number of parts - that is why it is not compared to the eye of a god, but rather to a small god's eye. Their is no reason to assume it to be a god or it is omniscient. An interesting part of the poem is about the wall being likened to a heart " ...I meditate on the opposite wall. It is pink, with speckles. I have looked at it so long I think it is a part of my heart". It is stated earlier that the mirror must be " ...unmisted by love or dislike", so this part is not about love. The room is really acting much like the chamber of a heart. Here it pumps, instead of blood, images to the mirror. But the mirror swallows images over time and it eventually grows to become a lake - a lake can of course act like a mirror. (Also a young girl could kinda swim or drown herself in a mirror, as if it were a lake.) The women in the poem, at this juncture, is now gotten older and she acts alarmed by her present image, as seen floating in the the lake - because she then "....turns to those liars, the candles or the moon". It's, as if, the candle and the moon have consciousness too - but they can't communicate using a reflection like the mirror can, they only have an ability to glow. So it is the people, and especially those lovers who are doing the lying in the candle light or under the glowing moon. She then returns back to the mirrored lake and there, realizes the truth, as the mirror does not lie - the result is sadness and tears. Eventually the women becomes aged and she sees reflected in the lake the following images " ....an old woman rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish". Some say "she is now ugly like a fish", but it is not the image of a fish she sees, she sees the image of a old women! - "terrible" here could mean "causing great fear or alarm", like a sudden jumping or rising fish. A rising fish can grab your attention and thus stop you in your tracks. This is a kind of striking experience, like the reflection in a mirror - as one suddenly realizes what is that is now being seen. So basically instead off swimming and drowning herself in a mirror, like she did when she was younger, now as a old women, she is kinda disturbed or taken back by it. From Wikipedia a metaphor is "a figure of speech that describes a subject by asserting that it is, on some point of comparison, the same as another otherwise unrelated object". So the "opposite wall" being likened to be "part of my heart" is a metaphor. She's not comparing the wall to a heart like a simile would, she's saying the wall is like part of her heart. Note a simile, as defined by Wordnik, is " a figure of speech in which two essentially unlike things are compared, often in a phrase introduced by like or as". Hence the " ....an old woman rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish" is not a simile! Yes, the old women and the fish are unlike things, but are not being compared here. This is another metaphor! I think when the mirror says "The eye of the little god", it is comparing itself to something quite different - a little gods eye instead of all reflecting mirrored surfaces. Hence that line is a simile. What is it called when we give inanimate objects human qualities or characteristics? Personification or anthropomorphism according to Yahoo answers. So the the candle and the moon are personified since they are called liars. Also the mirror narrates the poem and so is therefore personified too.

2016-05-24 23:51:44 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

fedest.com, questions and answers