Next, analyze your own creation in a brief critical essay. Discuss the way that the elements of the poem or story contribute to its meaning. For example, consider the following questions:
The poem "Cathedral" carries many poetic and literary devices in its content.
We shall break the analyzation of the poem into three sections. The first section will deal with the physical construction of the poem. The second section will give a short interpretation of the poem. In the third section we will look at the literary devices used in the poem and the effect that they add to the poem. These three elements are necessary to analyze any form of poetry.
The physical construction of "Cathedral" can be seen without reading the poem. The poem starts with a couplet, two lines of poetry grouped together. The next stanza is made up of four lines, or a quatrain. The poem alternates couplet and quatrain till near the end we see two quatrains and then a couplet ending the poem. Every couplet excluding the last has the same first line, which helps to bind the poem together. The same question is asked over and over to create a refrain.
Rhyme is not very important to the effect of this poem. The only rhyme comes on the second and fourth lines of the quatrain. The rhyme is not very effective because it just repeats the same word at the end of both stanzas. The lack of creative rhyme does not take away from the message though. When the word is repeated, it helps to give a better relationship between the two lines and hold the entire four lines together. This rhyme is not poppy or hypnotic. It actually creates a field to look more closely at the words to see why the same word is repeated.
To understand what literary devices lend to poetry it is always best to be able to follow what is happening inside the poem. The story grows throughout the poem. The narrator tells the story in a stream of consciousness style. Even though there is chronological order to the poem, it jumps forward rather quickly. In the beginning the narrator is pondering the visit he is to soon experience. He considers the hindrance and lack of entertainment the visitor is to bring to his home. He admits that he is going through with the visit for his wife's sake, even though he believes that she feels the same way about the man that he does. The visitor arrives and is welcomed into the house. The speaker now gives a more impartial attitude toward the old man instead of being uneasy with him. The evening seems to be getting along well and the old man is apparently acceptable company. The old man and the speaker are alone together and are growing fond of each other. The narrator closes his eyes and enters the blind man's world. They experience the cathedral. The speaker now realizes that the old man is not lower-class or sub-human. He is a whole man in the narrator's sight for the first time in the entire poem.
Point of view is very important to the poem. We get a very harsh feeling from the start of the poem from the narrator. The wife does not have these feelings. We would probably get a positive message throughout the poem from this lady. We would not have the conflict that the husband creates. If the blind man were to tell the tale, I doubt we would see the conflict at all. The old man would probably narrate excitement or fear of going to a strange new place. But since we get our information from the husband we have a conflict and a great turn-around in events. We could not get the realization from anyone else.
The point of view creates the tone. The tone is very harsh and judgmental. We could be offended by the statements that the narrator makes. The poem does not start off very pleasant. We see the narrator as a possible bigot and don't care to hear too much of his thoughts. Halfway through the poem the tone changes and so does our opinion of the narrator. He starts to open up his mind and become free to meet the old man. We get a warm feeling from the outcome of the poem. The change in tone is very noticeable and binds what could be two totally different poems into one. No one would expect this enlightenment from the outset of the poem.
The poem starts with a question. "What is he?" is a rhetorical question because the only possible thing "he" can be is a man. This question is asked four times, each with a different answer. If there can only be one answer to a question, why should it be asked four times? This repeated line suggests that the speaker is questioning the wholeness of the blind man or questioning his own thoughts of the man. The first three answers to the question are metaphors. These metaphors make us question our own opinions of the blind. They are not a bird without wings, a hunter without a bow, or a face without a smile. The fourth answer to the question gives us the true answer. He is a man without sight. The old man is less than a man when viewed through the metaphors, but is still rated low as being a man without sight.
Irony can be found in several parts of the poem. The most obvious is every other line of the quatrains when he speaks of the man's desire to see and then states that he cannot. The narrator makes sad jokes out of our everyday sayings. Think of a blind man asking you if it is all right to come over and see you. When the narrator says the old man wants to see his wife and does not see the door it is an understatement and a bit of a pun. More irony comes when the speaker says that he could not see the man until he closed his eyes and became like the man. In actuality the narrator could see the old man all along, but he could not see inside the man to understand the kind of person he is and that he is a real person. The last answer to the question "Who is he?" is ironic too. "Who is he?" is a more logical question than "What is he?" But the answer we get is less logical. Who he is not answered. Instead we are given the obvious, he is a man.
There is a great example of symbolism in this poem. The door represents the narrator. When a door is closed we cannot see what is on the other side. This represents the husband early on in the poem before he tries to get to know the old man. By opening a door we can see what is on the other side. When the narrator used an open mind he was able to see the blind man as a man just like himself.
Another literary device used is personification. This can be taken from the line "I hear the knock calling." This knock is coming from the door. A knock is not alive. A knock does not call out, "Someone is at the door." Personification is used to show how the speaker feels about the man knocking at the door. He does not want to go to the door. The door has to call to him to make him respond.
If we find a theme in literature, it is usually simple and powerfully presented. The theme given from this poem is the old adage, "Don't judge a book by its cover." The poem turns in midstream to give us this message. We would never suspect a happy closing to the poem from the start. We can read several poems in our lives. We will never fully appreciate poetry unless we open the door and see what is inside.
"Queenie in the A&P"
written by Connie Jean Howard
A dramatic interpretation of the short story written by John Updike
entitled
"A&P"
In we walk
One hot summer day
Into an A&P store
To find this guy Ray.
My friends think he's fine,
But to me he's much more,
And so we have come
Cause he works in this store.
We had been to the beach,
Just having a ball,
And my friend Lisa, she said,
Why don't you give him a call?
So nervously I did,
And I talked to his brother Kirk,
Who told me that Ray
Was already at work.
What a day, what a day, what a day....
My teenage heart throbbing,
We dashed for the car;
Packed our things in,
Like pennies in a jar.
We drove down the road
Doin' sixty in a thirty-five;
It's a wonder a cop
Didn't pull us aside.
Finaly, we turned in,
To the small parking lot.
We sat, and we pondered-
Should we go in, should we not?
And Jasmine, she said,
With an evil wink of her eye,
"Let's just wear what we've got on,
And really surprise this guy!"
What a day, what a day, what a day....
Lisa agreed
In her swimsuit of brown,
And then quickly added
"Regina, wear your straps down!"
Why I did it,
I'll never know.
I grabbed my one dollar,
And we got out to go.
You should have seen the faces
As we walked to the doors!
You would have thought we were run-a-rounds!
You would have thought we were whores!
I started to get nervous,
Jasmine said, "No turning back now!";
So I handled the situation
The best way I knew how.
My nose in the air,
My gaze straight ahead;
Inside I was thinking
"I would rather be dead."
Not a minute in the store
And this woman starts to yell
At this poor checkout boy.
She was giving him hell.
What a day, what a day, what a day....
She was complaining
About some extra she had to pay.
I sighed with relief
Cause the boy wasn't Ray.
So we walk down the aisles,
And over near the bread;
Our bare feet hitting the floor,
Like small balls of lead.
No sign of Ray,
But I was watching my every move.
Held my head high,
And I was trying to walk smooth.
We go down the cookie aisle,
And I feel the people stare.
I really cannot believe
I went along with this dare.
We came to a meat counter
And none of us made a sound,
Until Lisa finally asked
If Ray was around.
What a day, what a day, what a day....
It was this old man McMahon
who gave us a reply;
He said, "Ray is off today"
I thought I would die.
All of this embarrassment,
And he wasn't even there.
I know that old man was staring at us
But I didn't care.
Jasmine asked him a question,
And he started to point.
They pointed, I followed;
I was ready to leave this joint.
Jasmine picks up a jar
Of Herring snacks in sour cream.
I was really starting to think
Maybe this was all a dream.
What a day, what a day, what a day....
Jasmine said, "Regina, you've got the money,
Pay for this".
I said, "You know what Jas-
You know what you can kiss!"
I was so upset,
I was so frustrated;
I stormed off in front of them,
I was so irritated.
Somehow though I felt
As if I would cry,
I managed to walk with
My head held up high.
I got to the checkout,
And then I had to choose
Between two real geeks in bowties,
Anyway, I would lose.
What a day, what a day, what a day....
An old couple got one of them,
So then I had no choice;
I started to get really impatient
When I heard his voice.
My stomcah felt queasy
Whenever his lips parted;
Lind of like a love song
To the brokenhearted.
"How are you doing?"
"Nice weather we're having today."
I saw his desire;
Maybe I should just tell him that I'm gay.
Then I had to get the dollar
Nestled in my chest.
God, what he must have been thinking;
Me reaching between my breasts.
What a day, what a day, what a day....
This day couldn't get much worse,
I had taken all I could handle;
And then the manager walks in
(I believe his name was Lengel).
"Girls, this isn't the beach!"
My hands started to go numb;
"My mom told me to pick up htese snacks."
O.K. now I felt really dumb.
Time seemed to stand still forever,
As we sat there and listened to him preach.
How much easier life would have been that day,
If we would have simply stayed at the beach.
I knew the people were watching,
Because the room had grown so silent;
I bet in all its existence,
This A&P had never been so quiet.
What a day, what a day, what a day....
No bags were rustling,
No jars were being scanned.
A little part of me was wondering
Could this have all been planned?
The checkout boy, Lengel, Kirk,
Lisa, and Jasmine:
Maybe they all had this planned
Before we even walked in.
Anyway, the lecture was over,
And we were able to check out.
I will never step foot in that store again,
Without a doubt.
We left the store as fast as we could,
And no words were spoken.
I said, "I feel like crap,"
They laughed as if I were joking.
What a day, what a day, what a day....
I heard a couple of days later
From a friend of a friend of a friend,
That the dork who worked the register
Had brought his checkout days to an end.
He wasn't the only one
Who went to bed that day ending something;
I learned that night that Ray was engaged -
I did all of that for nothing.