March 7, 2012
Dear Laura Newbern,
I was reading Love
and the Eye recently, and I came across the poem “Gandhi’s Ashes”. I
absolutely adored it, but I will explain why a little later. Firstly, I had one
quick question about the poem. Why did you decide to begin and end the poem
with a speaker that was removed from what was occurring on the television as
they are watching Gandhi’s funeral procession? It created a very different and
unexpected perspective on the situation at hand, and I also think that you
might have done so in order to juxtapose the cynicism and lack of concern that
the individual watching the television feels about the event, it being just
another television program, with the “sea” of Gandhi’s supporters. I felt like
this aspect of the poem showed the type of impact Gandhi had on the world, but
shown in a very interesting and unique light. All the people who were directly
impacted by the deeds he performed worshipped him and created this massive body
of people and flowers to show their love for him, while the people outside of
this ring of impact knew about what he did, but did not really care or pay much
attention to the problems that he was bringing forward. Please let me know what
you think of this assessment of the poem and what your thoughts are on it.
Other than that, I just wanted to discuss one aspect of
your poem that I truly adore. The use and transition of sea imagery that occurs
when the poem focuses on what is happening on the television, truly describes
the scope of adoration that the people of India must have had for Gandhi at the
time of his death. The transition from the “sea of people” to the “sea of
humanity” appears to suggest a change in the scope of the sea, not just a sea
of ordinary people who loved Gandhi, but to a sea of human beings, from around
the world and from all walks of life, all united in the death of a great leader
and protector of the common humans. I adore how it then focuses on an
individual within the crowd, “a woman/ wearing a flowery dress”, who is
described as the “moment’s narrator”, depicting the scene and the sentiment of
the people who attend the funeral with her. I also love how it eases the
transition from the “sea of humanity” to the “sea of flowers”, with the
combination of her humanity and the flowers on her dress. These “seas” of love
for Gandhi create a form of water for his boat to travel down the streets until
it reaches the literal “sea”. These descriptions of his supporters drive home
the impact that he had on his people and the extent of their love for him.
Please let me know if you have any thoughts that you would like to point out
about your experience with writing this poem.
With
regards,
Jordyn
Farrell
Jordyn- I liked your organization of your letter, because it broke down your thoughts very clearly. You first addressed your interpretation, and then moved on to the elements that led you to interpret it that way. This made your thought process much easier to understand than some other formats. My suggestion would be to address the elements used to convey the viewers' cynicism, since you mostly addressed the adoring sea. You no doubt already plan on doing this in your annotation, but I think it would be a nice addition to the letter.
ReplyDeleteLyssa
I second Lyssa's comments. I think the order in which you address the poem is working. You definitely need to flesh out your earlier comments with textual examination like you do with the "sea" movement. Right after you make the claim about starting and ending with the removed and cynical speaker would be a good place to add in some line quotes and close reading of what's going on there. Another thing would be to create a stronger connection between your first and second paragraphs. How does the frame of the removed viewer highlight the love you talk about in the sea sections? One small thing: periods and commas go inside closing quotation marks like underwear goes inside the pants. When citing poems, it's a good idea to indicate the line numbers at the end of a "quote" (ln 6-9).
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