Alba (Dawn Song)
As cool as the pale wet leaves
of lily-of-the-valley
She lay beside me in the dawn
Brief Bio-He really wanted to get out of America. To London first, as the father of modernist poetry, and eventually Italy where he made pro-Axis rants on Italian radio during World War II. When American troops finally got him, they put him in a box for 25 days. He was never quite the same after that, though not exactly stable to begin with. Stable in his art, perhaps.
chr1
My own first impression from the poem Alba was that of a lover’s feelings towards their partner, however that changed at the second reading when I began to see that there are many other ways that the “cool…. wet leaves” can portray. Blood-stained leaves rather than my own first interpretation (dew-covered leaves).
Comment by Lonski — September 26, 2007 @ 1:59 pm |
Thanks for reading.
I was thinking of dew-covered leaves because it’s dawn as well. I never thought of the poem that way. Maybe there’s some other intent. Could she be dead?
Bleeding? Who, or what, is “she” anyways?
Comment by chr1 — September 26, 2007 @ 7:48 pm |
The flower; “Lilly-of-the-valley” is pure white. This can be symbolic of purity and innocence, and since the poet compares this woman with the Lilly, we can assume that the voice of the poem considers this woman to be pure as the flower. The Lilly-of -the-valley can be used to portray heavenly things so a possible image that the poem can give to the reader is that of a heavenly light is emitting from this woman from the dimness of the “Dawn.” This plays well with the gentle rhythm of the poem.
The lady could possiby be named “Dawn” its a little strechy but hey, it’s my interpretation isn’t it. xD
Comment by Lonski — October 2, 2007 @ 11:32 am |
[...] Hi! My name is Alison, and I’m doing an analysis of the poet Rita Dove, and though this seems random, she and Pound are actually similar writers in some ways! This short poem takes most of Pounds writing style and wraps it up in a nice, simple packet; he was all about the imagery and it’s importance. When he says “As cool as the pale wet leaves”, he is using an image to describe the feeling and mood behind the poem and the description of whoever “she” is. Dove does a similar thing through HER writing, like in her poem DayStar; just the simple WORDS of that poem describe the feeling of despair that the main character feels. [...]
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Alison, thanks for your comment.
That’s a good point to make about Pound.
Do you think Dove is as inclined to the image, or perhaps more to a feeling that one or many images could help to realize in the reader’s mind?
Comment by chr1 — April 1, 2009 @ 7:18 pm |