Essay Questions

How is grief described in the poem "GRIEF POEM’’?

In the poem mentioned above, the pain caused by death is compared with winter. In the first stanza for example, grief is compared with a chill which enters a person’s body and refuses to leave, no matter what the person affected does. The mind and the bones are affected first showing how grief can have a lasting effect on someone’s body as well as on their mind. "Language’’ or speech is affected as well, showing how the person affected by grief is no longer able to function properly in society. The person described here eventually forms icicles, dangerous for those around existing around the person. Thus, grief can also have the power to influence the people living and interacting with the person suffering as well.

Explain the second part of the poem "IF YOUR MIRROR BREAKS’’.

In the second part of the poem, the narrator mentions a person who was holding a mirror in his arms and the mirror suddenly broke. The shards of glass entered the person’s system through their veins, eventually lodging themselves into the man’s throat, making it bleed and forcing the man to utter "brittle words’’. The situation presented above could mean that someone had their feelings hurt by someone else. This event could be considered as the moment when the glass broke. The fact that the glass entered the veins of the person in question could symbolize that the person who was hurt let the feelings of resentment completely overpower him. The result is the bleeding of the throat and the brittle words, or rather the incapacity of the hurt person to manifest compassion and the tendency to criticize and throw harsh words without thinking how they will affect others.

Who could the pronoun "you’’ stand for in the poem "OFFERINGS’’?

The pronoun is used here is a general way, to make reference to a character who is not present in the poem. The narrator address the person in question directly but in a rather impersonal manner, thus implying that the narrator does not know too much about the true identity of "you’’. The mysterious character offers various gifts to the group from which the narrator is a part of as well but the idea transmitted is that these presents have little to no value. The presents are extremely fragile and some of them break or disappear as soon as the narrator touches them. Despite this, the narrator and the rest of the people look forward to receiving them. Thus, we can argue that the mysterious person could symbolize here some form of deity people look towards to for help or guidance or maybe even a political government which fails to follow through with their promises.