The following poem needs to identify and answer this question.
“How does an individual’s perspective of, and response to, a crisis define him or
her?”
It needs to have mood, imagery, and tone identified in separate paragraphs incorporated and displayed how the poet used mood, imagery and tone to enhance the theme.
Consider the speaker’s tone.
– What seems to be the speaker’s attitude?
– What specific details from the poem support your conclusions?
– Is the tone consistent or does the poet’s attitude shift throughout the poem?
– Why might the poet have used this tone?
Determine the mood when determining the theme.
– What predominant emotion is the reader intended to feel?
– What words or phrases support this mood?
– Is this mood consistent or does it shift throughout the poem?
Imagery – are all 5 senses aroused? Did the poet deliberately active one sense in particular?
Fore mother by Lillian Bouzane my great-grandmother watched her husband
Wash over boarding a Labrador gale just one more fishing skipper lost in the Strait of Belle Isle nobody noticed she was a grieving woman until the merchant at Quirpon
moved to short-change her by fifty quin talon the fish from their last voyage with ascorn she bothered to show she ordered the catch reloaded took the wheel hersel fand set her course for the next harbor where she sold it at a neat profit steeling her nerveshe raised her flag to full staffand sailed into her home port the priest came to see her to admonish and comfort she gave him good whiskey
with a glint in her eye that said “don’t meddle with me”he didn’t each year thereafter
she made two voyages to the Labrador Coast spring and summer hired for hands only bed lamer boys kept her name clear took one trip to Boston each year left the children behind with orders to say to the neighbours “don’t meddle with my mother’s good name”they obeyed her when she was fifty and had fourteen schooners in her name she married again a man half her age she made him her bookkeeper/bartender
he was good at both she got ten winters out of him she said so herself once she sailed her flagship to Montreal to buy a dress her only purchase when the Duke’s son came
to plant a tree and settle other matters of State she danced the night through with him at the government ball he walked her down to the harbor they sat on her quarter-deck ‘til dawn drinking port and singing bawdy songs.
it was said he asked her to marry him it was said she turned him downshe already had more ships than he before the bank crash of 1894 she liquidated her assets bought gold lived another ten years to be ninety to the consternation of her sons and the delight of her daughters who loved her and got her money they passed it on to my mother who educated my five sisters and me with what was left of it I, her offspring, thrice removed write this poem in praise of her and tell only half I know.
