This poem is really sad. The poem is all about Natasha reminiscing about a fishing trip with her father before he died. I think the structure of this poem is really interesting. It starts with Natasha describing the fishing trip day. Although it is clear that Natasha is looking back at a memory, she uses so much imagery to describe the nature surrounding her, so it almost seems like she is experiencing it now. These detailed descriptions make the moment more meaningful because it shows how much she really cared about the time she spent with her father. The imagery surrounding nature also contributes to the peaceful tone in the poem, very similar to the way that Mary Shelley used nature imagery to create a peaceful tone in various scenes of Frankenstein. For example, in the scene when Victor was traveling to Geneva and he saw the monster, the descriptions of nature were very peaceful as it correlated with his positive mood, which shifted to rain and dark skies as his mood became more negative. The difference between this and frankenstein is that this poem has a peaceful tone throughout the whole poem until the end, and shifts to sadness toward the very end.
Natasha also uses present tense when she is describing this distant memory to show that she remembers the moment so vividly as if it is still happening now. When the poem reaches the end, it is clear that this memory itself is the elegy, and that she actually planned for that moment to be the elegy when it was happening, which is part of the reason why she remembered it so vividly. Once again, another Natasha Trethewey poem that has given me chills at the end.
It is awesome that the poem is about fishing and I like how the use of imagery was something that was easily picked up on.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a really moving and impactful poem, the poet's use of the present tense makes the memory especially stand out.
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