I have to analyze the use of metaphors in the following poem for a presentation tomorrow, and i just can;t figure out the best way to go about it. If you have any ideas, or would like to comment on the meaning of the poem, i would really appreciate it, since it's kind of confusing and I'd love some one else's input. Thanks!

Spelling

Margaret Atwood

My daughter plays on the floor
with plastic letters,
red, blue & hard yellow,
learning how to spell,
spelling,
how to make spells.

*

I wonder how many women
denied themselves daughters,
closed themselves in rooms,
drew the curtains
so they could mainline words.

*

A child is not a poem,
a poem is not a child.
There is no either / or.
However.

*

I return to the story
of the woman caught in the war
& in labour, her thighs tied
together by the enemy
so she could not give birth.

Ancestress: the burning witch,
her mouth covered by leather
to strangle words.

A word after a word
after a word is power.

*

At the point where language falls away
from the hot bones, at the point
where the rock breaks open and darkness
flows out of it like blood, at
the melting point of granite
when the bones know
they are hollow & the word
splits & doubles & speaks
the truth & the body
itself becomes a mouth.

This is a metaphor.

*

How do you learn to spell?
Blood, sky & the sun,
your own name first,
your first naming, your first name,
your first word.

lmn, the main idea here I think is that the words we form are metaphors for our lives. That is the words themselves represent something else. The letters c-a-t represent an animal. All our language is like that. These marks on paper represent ideas and those ideas often represent something else.

The reference to witchcraft is probably the type of paranoia caused by people who didn't know or understand what those women were SAYING. Hence, they felt that the women must have been practicing some kind of black magic.

I hope this helps. Take a close look at the stanza which begins "At the point", because I think that this is the crux of the metaphor. It tells the reader that to get to the meat of the metaphor one must peel away the surface. To understand their words one must understand their lives. And of course in order to practice the magic of language one must be able to "spell".


Les



Post Edited (11-09-04 21:59)

Les, who ever you are, you are a poetic genius, and thank you so much for your brilliant comments on "spelling". You totally nailed it (and even used a pun, i love puns!), and i feel like i have so much more to go on for my presentation. Thank you again, and i hope you're around the next time i get into a poetic pickle. Everyone else is welcome to offer their viewpoints as well, i have ten minutes to fill tomorrow for my presentation...
-lmn

lmn, if you do a detailed job on the poem your presentation could easily go 10 minutes. Just make sure you quote the poem at every opportunity. From my experience in oral interp. classes I can tell you that going from your notes to a hard copy of the poem takes time. If you have just 10 sentences each one can easily take a minute if you stop to explain where you found it in the poem. Take your time and don't rush, since that tends to make you speed through things. Good luck.


Les

I'll definitely take the advice, thanks for all your help. I'll letcha know how it went.
-lmn

Perhaps writing a poem is equivalent to casting a spell? And the various stanzas are examples intended to show that supposition? Or, to create a poem is the same as giving birth? And the stanzas show variations on that theme? Just guessing, you understand.

I'm not sure binding a woman's thighs could actually keep her from delivering, though. What will out will out, that is. Is this a (famous) story I should recognize?

to hugh, i believe the story of the woman's legs being bound together is an incident that occured during the Holocaust, at least that is what I was told. And, supposedly, the woman would bleed to death, killing herself and the baby. Thank you for sharing your ideas on the poem, i'd never looked at it that way before, and i love to hear other people's interpretations. I gave my presentation today, and it went very well. I recited the poem with out a hitch, and entirely filled the required ten minutes, even exceeding the time, because my classmates were still discussing the poem. hopefully becaue they were interested in it, and what i had to say about it. thanks again everyone, you were lifesavers.
-lmn

lmn, thank you for getting back to us. Many who post here are never heard from again.

Les

what do you guys think about the feminist discourse in this poem?

I'm not sure what you mean by 'think about the feminist discourse'- it's by Margaret Atwood, so it is from a feminist viewpoint.

Is there something specific you're looking for?

pam

On the 'feminist discourse' i think Margaret Atwood has always had a strong view against the silencing of women. Has anyone read her book - the handmaid's tale?
I loved the poem - it was new to me but enjoyed it thouroughly.
Perhaps someone would like to elaborate on the line - so they could mainline words.....

I think its a reference to injecting illegal drugs.

'Mainlining' a drug- usually heroin- is to shoot it directly into a vein, so it takes effect more quickly.

pam