This Is Love By Karlo Mila - englishwithmsfischer



This Is Love By Karlo Mila

(for David)

you’ve taken / the roots of / my thoughts on / what love is /

this understanding I’ve created over the years /

so ripe / so red / in your big hands / brown / custodial

you put them in a pot / large bucket / on your front

doorstep / a place in the Papatoetoe sun / this is love you

say / watering / tending / a careful eye at the end of the day

it is seeds sown in the hopeful spring / hiccups of hope /

scattered sheets / seed spread bed / it is shedding dead leaves

in autumn / and you prune / me / cutting fingertips

tenderly / bleeding softly into soil / blistering gently / the

test is you say / whether we will survive winter / there

will be many winters / soaked with rain / frost on car

window mornings

this is love you say / endurance through / every / every day /

season

this is what I have learned.

love is not a bunch of red roses / blossomed into the peak

of their beauty / cut at the height of their passion / long

stemmed /bikini lined / full lipped / red perfect

love is / the watering / the watching / the pruning / the

tending / the providing of new buckets / the finding of

new doorsteps /

love is not something one simply wears

behind their ears

in full bloom

[pic]

4) STRUCTURE

Use of broken lines to make the reader pause and

Think hard about each phrase. To the poet, it is

Important that the reader digests this message

properly.

Eg: ‘and you prune / me / cutting fingertips’

‘ You’ve taken / the roots of / my thoughts on’

Broken into two parts- the first half of the poem discusses what love is.

- the second half discusses what love is not.

5) LANGUAGE FEATURES

Extended metaphor: Of love like the care and attention one gives to a plant to help it grow.

‘love is / The watering / the watching / the pruning’

( see other specialist sheet for an extended version of this.)

6) AUTHORS BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: Karlo Mila is a NZ poet of Tongan, Samoan and European descent. Her poetry tends to be about themes to do with her cultural heritage, politics and love. Poetry that ‘speaks to the soul’. Her book ‘Dream Fish Floating’ which was a collection of poems won ‘Best First Book of Poetry’ in 2006.

Valentine

by Carol Ann Duffy

Not a red rose or a satin heart.

I give you an onion.

It is a moon wrapped in brown paper.

It promises light

like the careful undressing of love.

Here.

It will blind you with tears

like a lover.

It will make your reflection

a wobbling photo of grief.

I am trying to be truthful.

Not a cute card or a kissogram.

I give you an onion.

Its fierce kiss will stay on your lips,

possessive and faithful

as we are,

for as long as we are.

Take it.

Its platinum loops shrink to a wedding-ring,

if you like.

Lethal.

Its scent will cling to your fingers,

cling to your knife.

4) STRUCTURE: a series of observations/images linked by their common theme of love being like and onion. Not written in sentence forms throughout - she uses disjointed phrases or even a single word. (minor sentences.) Eg ‘Here.’ ‘ Take it.’ ‘ Lethal.’

Some stanzas are a single line long.

‘ I am trying to be truthful.’

The effect of this is it causes the reader to digest the words and their meanings slowly. We are forced to think about words more carefully as they stand alone.

5)LANGUAGE FEATURES:

Extended Metaphor: Love as an onion. Not only is she giving her lover an onion as a Valentines Day present, she is also describing how the onion is love.

‘ It’s platinum loops shrink to a wedding-ring’

‘ It’s scent will cling to your fingers.’

Simile: ‘It will blind you with tears

like a lover’

Personification: ‘ It’s fierce kiss will stay on you lips,

Possessive and faithful’

Use of pronouns: ‘I give you an onion.’ : Helps the reader to understand that this is between two people. Universal because it does not state gender or age.

Violent connotations: ‘Lethal’

‘Cling to your knife’.

6) POETS BACKGROUND/PURPOSE:

She was asked to write a poem by a Radio station producer for Valentine’s Day. As an artist, Duffy felt the need to provide an original symbol to represent love for this occasion.

She is of Scottish descent and teaches Creative Writing.

Duffy chooses not to ‘invent’ new interesting words in her poetry instead she says ‘ I like to use simple words but in a complicated way.”

We can see this in ‘Valentine’ which really uses very simple vocabulary to evoke quite complex images and themes.

The Lifeless Wife

By Margaret Atwood.

The lifeless wife

Kisses with pursed lips

Her grim husband (thin

Pinstriped businessman);

She is his safe

Deposit box and bank

The nickelodeon

That plays his favourite tune

She was just an ordinary

Woman: all he had to do

To make her fully his

In pure domestic bliss

Was just break through

Her backbone, empty out her head

Stuff her heart with money

And bury her in bed.

[pic]

4)STRUCTURE:

3 stanzas

1st stanza – describes her / how

she is treated by husband

2nd stanza – she is ordinary

3rd stanza – violent imagery –

how she is treated

5) LANGUAGE FEATURES:

Metaphor – “stuff her heart with

money”.

Has associations of her being killed and her body stuffed. Very graphic.

Metaphor – “safe deposit box” – she is lifeless, cold, empty, an object owned by her husband. Relates to title and suggests how she feels (empty inside).

Alliteration – “break ..backbone…bury her in bed”

Effect – forceful ‘b’ sounds. This is effective as it sounds like punches / blows.

6)POETS BACKGROUND/PURPOSE:

Margaret Atwood is an established Canadian writer. She has written a number of award-winning novels, as well as poetry which often deal with sexual politics (relationships between men and women in society) as well as other contemporary issues. Her work could broadly be described as Feminist. Another famous work of hers is ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ which describes a dystopian society where fertile woman are controlled like slaves in society.

She wants us to see how women can so easily be dominated by their husbands in a patriarchal society.(a society that is controlled by men.) So many girls dream of growing up and marrying ‘Mr Right’, with lots of money and respect in society. Atwood is showing us that money and power does not always equate with happiness. There is no love for the lifeless wife.

Leaving Prince Charming Behind

Karlo Mila

For a while I thought we were living the fairy tale

but sadly I realised that this was the myth

and you were so busy believing

that we were living the happily ever after

I don’t think you noticed for a while

I’d rejected the role of princess in your production.

I am Rapunzel with her dreadlocks shorn

trying to pull down the tower with broken nails

cursing your name.

I believed you the architect of my isolation

and it didn’t matter

what you tried to do

the poison apple was lodged firmly in my throat

and not believing in glass slipper

redemption

I worked my own midnight magic for all it was worth

red blood, white cloth

mirrors on the wall.

My poor dark prince on your gallant white horse

the shoe didn’t fit

your kiss couldn’t wake me up

to your way of thinking.

I transformed myself into

a beautiful dragon

you felt honour bound

to slay.

LANGUAGE FEATURES:

Fairytale Allusion – “I am Rapunzel with her dreadlocks shorn” , “glass slipper didn’t fit” “the poison apple lodged in my throat” – she turns upside down the usual fairy tale to make her point.

Metaphor – “you, the architect of my isolation” –

She blames her ex lover for ‘designing’ her suffering and loneliness, linking him to fairytales of princesses trapped in castles by cruel fathers or husbands.

Use of a pause (gap) between “this was _____ the myth” – emphasises the gap between her hopes (that they were living a ‘fairytale’) and the reality (it was a myth – i.e. just an illusion.)

STRUCTURE:

5 stanzas

Shows progression from her early understanding of the relationship as a ‘fairytale’ through to her ‘transforming herself into a dragon. Each stanza draws on different stories – Rapunzel, Cinderella and Snow White, Sleeping Beauty.

POET’S PURPOSE/BACKGROUND:

Karlo Mila is a NZ poet of Tongan, Samoan and European descent. Her poetry tends to be about themes to do with her cultural heritage, politics and love. Poetry that ‘speaks to the soul’. Her book ‘Dream Fish Floating’ which was a collection of poems won ‘Best First Book of Poetry’ in 2006.

-----------------------

1) MAIN IDEA: That real love is like gardening and looking after a plant to help it grow. Love needs to be maintained and cared for in order to survive and flourish.

Eg: ‘seeds sown in the hopeful spring’

‘ love is / the watering / the watching.’

2) TONE: Positive, loving, thankful/grateful, reflective,

She is telling David the ways in which he has helped her to learn how to love, how to see love in a different way.

Eg: ‘you’ve taken / the roots of / my thoughts on / what love is /’

‘this is what I have learned.’

3) KEY IMAGERY: What love is: Love as a seed that grows in the springtime into a plant.

Eg: ‘It is seeds sown in the hopeful spring’

‘on your front doorstep / a place in the Papatoetoe sun /

What love isn’t: Not your stereotypical symbols of love, Eg ‘not a bunch of red roses / blossomed into the peak of their beauty / cut at the height of their passion.’

‘ not something one simply wears behind their ears in full bloom’.

Purpose: To help explain what love looks like and what it doesn’t look like to Karlo Mila now that she has been shown differently.

Effect: We see images in our minds of seeds growing and a house in Papatoetoe, pictures we may be able to relate to. Most people would also know what red roses on Valentine’s Day look like. These images force the reader see love as something that grows with hard work, not something that you can buy that’s instantly beautiful.

1) MAIN IDEA: Love is not always about hearts and roses, it can be described/shown in other forms. She is uses an original symbol of an onion to help represent love the way she sees it. This is more suitable to her than stereotypical symbols of love like roses and cards.

Eg ‘Not a red rose or a satin heart.’

I give you an onion.

It’s fierce kiss will stay on your lips.’

2)TONE: Positive, truthful, honest. In some parts hurtful- but that just helps to enhance the idea of an onion representing realistic love. Real love causes us to feel hurt sometimes.

‘I am trying to be truthful’

‘ It promises light’

‘It’s scent will cling to your fingers,

Cling to your knife.’

3)IMAGERY: The onion like a moon – controls the tides and a woman’s cycle. It is also a light- may symbolise enlightenment, goodness, hope.

Eg ‘ It is a moon wrapped in brown paper.

It promises light’

The peeling of an onion- ‘undressing’ it, peeling back the layers is like looking beneath the surface to truly know someone.

‘ the careful undressing of love’

( There are lots more – eg, the wedding ring, the reflection)

1)MAIN IDEA: A critique of the empty life that some housewives live with their controlling husbands. There is no love involved. She no longer thinks for herself. He controls her emotions with money.

Eg) ‘stuff her heart with money’

‘ the lifeless wife’

Only one person gets to be happy in this relationship. Shi is almost used like a prostitute (trophy wife)

2)TONE: The poem is scathing, angry, disgusted. It is criticising this kind of relationship. ‘her grim husband’

‘the nickelodeon That plays his favourite tune’

There are very little positive words and when there are they are used in sarcasm. ‘in pure domestic bliss’

This line then is strongly contrasted with the next line…

‘Was just break through

Her backbone,’

Atwood uses violent imagery to assist the angry tone in which she writes this poem.

Sympathy is also there for the wife ‘She was just an ordinary woman’

3) IMAGERY: We are presented with many descriptions of the wife as a dead human or a non-living inanimate object.

- A carcass being stuffed with money and having it’s brain scooped out. ‘empty out her head

Stuff her heart with money’

- A cold hard empty box. ‘She is his safe

Deposit box and bank’

- a plastic, musical toy that always says what he wants to hear.

‘The nickelodeon that plays his favourite tune’

PURPOSE: To make the wife seem dead, lifeless.

EFFECT: As women, it makes us angry to think about a woman being treated in this way. It makes us think about marriage and equality in relationships between man and woman. It also makes us think about how society views relationships. From the outside looking in, the marriage in ‘The Lifeless Wife’ may seem normal to many people.

MAIN IDEA: A woman choosing to leave her partner after a failed relationship. She is refusing to stay in the ‘fairytale’ relationship that he believed it to be. The fact that she is comparing it to a fairytale strengthens the idea that the love wasn’t real. It wasn’t a happy relationship and she refused to ‘play along’

‘For a while I thought we were living the fairy tale’

‘I’d rejected the role of princess in your production.’

TONE: Disappointment and disillusionment (“I thought we were living the fairytale”)

Anger and confusion (I am Rapunzel with her dreadlocks shorn)

Triumph and pride (“I transformed myself into the beautiful dragon.”)

IMAGERY: I worked my own midnight magic for all it was worth / red blood , white cloth, mirrors on the wall”

By using active verbs (“I worked..) she emphasises that she tried hard to make the relationship work but to no avail.

The image of the mirror suggests she had to find her own self worth.

The imagery of “Red blood, white cloth” suggests violence / death (her pain? Sacrifice?) – such as in stories like Snow White where the evil queen tries to kill Snow White. This shows the lengths that she will go to, to get out of this relationship.

“Midnight magic” – refers to Cinderella where the magic transformation ends at midnight.

This imagery is also linked to the line “the poison apple was lodged firmly in my throat”- which shows she was metaphorically ‘choking’ in the relationship.

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