Sestina McKenna, Allison, Jessica
Inquiry Questions: 1. How might the use of sestina and personification produce an underlying emotional tone to the work? 2. How do gender and traditional gender roles influence the meaning of the poem?
How might the use of sestina and personification produce an underlying emotional tone to the work?
Poetic Devices
Form Using the form of the Sestina to influence the tone of the poem
house grandmother child Stove almanac tears
What is a Sestina? Stanza 1: September rain falls on the house. Stanza 3: It's time for tea now; but the child In the failing light, the old grandmother is watching the tea kettle's small hard tears sits in the kitchen with the child dance like mad on the hot black stove, beside the Little Marvel Stove, the way the rain must dance on the house. reading the jokes from the almanac, Tidying up, the old grandmother laughing and talking to hide her tears. hangs up the clever almanac Stanza 2: She thinks that her equinoctial tears Stanza 4: on its string. Birdlike, the almanac and the rain that beats on the roof of the house hovers half open above the child, were both foretold by the almanac, hovers above the old grandmother but only known to a grandmother. and her teacup full of dark brown tears. The iron kettle sings on the stove. She shivers and says she thinks the house She cuts some bread and says to the child, feels chilly, and puts more wood in the stove.
Stanza 5: It was to be, says the Marvel Stove. Stanza 7: Time to plant tears, says the almanac. I know what I know, says the almanac. The grandmother sings to the marvelous stove With crayons the child draws a rigid house and the child draws another inscrutable house. and a winding pathway. Then the child puts in a man with buttons like tears and shows it proudly to the grandmother Stanza 6: But secretly, while the grandmother busies herself about the stove, the little moons fall down like tears from between the pages of the almanac into the flower bed the child has carefully placed in the front of the house.
Endowing animals, ideas, Personification abstractions, and inanimate objects with human qualities or human form.
Personification in the Work “The iron kettle sings from the stove” (line 11) “..but the child / is watching the tea kettle’s small hard tears / dance like mad on the hot black stove” (lines 13-15) “The way the rain must dance on the house” (line 16) “Tidying up, the old grandmother / hangs up the clever almanac” (lines 17-18) “It was to be, says the Marvel Stove. / I know what I know, says the almanac” (lines 25-26)
Emotional Effect - We can better understand the emotions of the grandmother - Add a feeling of sadness to the house - Creates a broader sense of extreme loss
How do gender and gender roles influence the meaning of the poem?
Presence of Gender in Sestina Lack of Child’s Gender ● ● Presence of the Grandmother Man in the Drawing ●
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