Sentry Page Protection
A QUARTET OF DAFFODILS
|
|
Lorna Goodison (August 1, 1947) is a Jamaican poet, essayist and memoirist, a West Indian writer, whose career spans four decades. She is now Professor Emerita, English Language and Literature/ Afro-American and African Studies at the University of Michigan. (more)
|
LITERAL MEANING
The persona believes that it must be spring because she saw an Indian woman, yesterday morning, wearing a shear and luminously coloured sari walking on the road. She also saw a quartet, of daffodils, so it had to be spring. They had sprung up in the front yard of Gore Vale and she believes that they must be tired from making their way out of the frozen earth (www.bulbsoup.com) because they were bowed over. Despite their state, however, they are the first to pop up, followed by the crocuses. She observes that the evergreen never went under and observes that this is the persona's third spring because she is not native to that land. She is from the Caribbean where there is no strong contrast between the seasons. She believes its spring because she feels tender and vulnerable, like her very first quartet of daffodils. In essence, this poem is about our reaction to struggle in the face of life's 'winters'.
The persona believes that it must be spring because she saw an Indian woman, yesterday morning, wearing a shear and luminously coloured sari walking on the road. She also saw a quartet, of daffodils, so it had to be spring. They had sprung up in the front yard of Gore Vale and she believes that they must be tired from making their way out of the frozen earth (www.bulbsoup.com) because they were bowed over. Despite their state, however, they are the first to pop up, followed by the crocuses. She observes that the evergreen never went under and observes that this is the persona's third spring because she is not native to that land. She is from the Caribbean where there is no strong contrast between the seasons. She believes its spring because she feels tender and vulnerable, like her very first quartet of daffodils. In essence, this poem is about our reaction to struggle in the face of life's 'winters'.
|
1. I think it must be spring
because yesterday morning on Spadina there was an Indian woman walking wrapped in maximum eight yards of sari cloth 5 2. It was sheer and a luminous color. like the nectar of pressed apricots. 2. A red dot punctuated the center of her brow, like a small and urgent point of energy 4. had found its way to the surface of her skin, 10 and jeweled or a drop of blood, it was gleaming. 1. I think it must be spring because 5. there is not a host but a quartet of daffodils sprung up in the front yard of Gore Vale. 4. They stand not straight but bowed over so. 15 I think that they had a hard time making it out of their frozen birthplace inside the earth. 6. Nevertheless, they are here and have come in first. The runners-up are the crocuses. But the evergreen never went under, 20 it just spread its branches taught and took the worst that winter had to offer. 7. Do not go under and one day you may be crowned with evergreen. This year is my third spring, the third time that I have been witness to the cycle of the seasons. 25 Where I am born, there is no such thing, 8. seasons just shift over a bit to accommodate the one following. 4. Our winters bring tangerines and pimento winds. Bless now death, resurrection, and peculiar ascension of ice falls finally away. 30 1. I think it must be spring now because today 2. I feel so tender, like all early things budding. And even if I am coming in exhausted, bowed, bent, drawn, and yellow skinned like my very first quartet of daffodils 35 I know now that this is undeniably spring. Poet: Lorna Goodison |
LITERARY DEVICES
1. REPETITION
|
- Stanza 4, line 14: The
- Stanza 4, line 15: Labour
- Stanza 2, lines 6-8: Time
- Stanza 2, lines 6-8: The
IMPORTANT WORDS/ PHRASES
4.'breathing ' (Stanza 5, line 17)
This
5. 'the .' (Stanza 5, line 18-19)
This
4.'breathing ' (Stanza 5, line 17)
This
5. 'the .' (Stanza 5, line 18-19)
This
THEMATIC CATEGORY: Love and Family Relationship, Desire, Patriotism
ATMOSPHERE
- The mood of the poem is calm due to the grandfather's resolve to ensure that his granddaughter is submerged in the Indian culture. His approach to the process is calm and deliberate, starting with exposing her to the bajhan.
- The tone of the poem is one of warmth due to the grandfather's gratefulness for the existence of his grandfather.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. In 30 words, say what this poem is about?
2. How
1. In 30 words, say what this poem is about?
2. How
Contributor: Leisa Samuels-Thomas
Goodison, L. 'A Quartet of Daffodils' in A World of Poetry. Edited by Mark McWatt and Hazel Simmonds McDonald. Pearson Education Ltd, 2005.
Goodison, L. 'A Quartet of Daffodils' in A World of Poetry. Edited by Mark McWatt and Hazel Simmonds McDonald. Pearson Education Ltd, 2005.
