For Our Extremely Necessary However Hated Daily Dose of POETRY

Poem: sestina

Book: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Well although I HATE poetry papers with all of my heart, I do love poetry! My favorite of the bunch I honestly will have to say was “Sestina” by Elizabeth Bishop. I’m not just saying that because it came up on the multiple choice test we took. I especially remember the poem because of the many different ways few people interpreted it. First off, the almanac and marvelous stone that randomly speak to each other add so much craziness to an altogether plain and domestic scene. I mean, “there’s something strange about a place where” objects predict things and grandparents cry (49)! The speaker manages to make this child seem strange, when really the child only, “acts like a child” (34). I also can relate to the grandmother. I never want my cousins, or the little kids I babysit, to know when I am sad. Any time I cry it either started with laughing or ends with someone making me laugh in order to feel better. Its like sometimes I forget, “what laughter can do” (95). Laughter can brighten up anyone’s day! I love all of the little things about the poem as well, the repetition of “tears”, the personification, and metaphors. Sestina makes for a great, short, poem!