Margeret+Atwood

Margaret Atwood Margaret Atwood is a Canadian writer born on November 18, 1939 (my birthday twin) in Ottawa, Canada. She is married to Graeme Gibson and they have one child name Eleanor Atwood Gibson born on May 1976. Margaret is now 76 years old and she has written a variety of things such as short stories, novels, and award winning poetry. Many of her poems are inspired by myths and fairy tales. She studied English literature at the University of Toronto. Although she is known for her work as a novelist she is also an environmental activist, and an Inventor of the Long Pen.

**Habitation** 1. Marriage is not 2. a house or even a tent 3. it is before that, and colder: 4. the edge of the forest, the edge 5. of the desert 6. the unpainted stairs 7. at the back where we squat 8. outside, eating popcorn 9. the edge of the receding glacier 10. where painfully and with wonder 11. at having survived even 12. this far 13. we are learning to make fire Atwood, Margaret

The following poem //__Habitation__// by Margaret Atwood discusses “Marriage”. Margaret Atwood explains the struggles of marriage but relates marriage to nature and objects. Margaret Atwood used symbolism and imagery to portray the poem in which the reader may envision and embark on her theory and or thoughts on marriage. In lines one and two Margaret says “Marriage is not a house or even a tent”, Margaret Atwood uses a house and a tent as symbolism to explain that marriage is not as stable as a house all the time or as unstable as a tent. Margaret states that marriage is always unpredictable some days are going to be better than others, marriage is like climate. Weather, you never know what you going to get you just know that it is random. She goes on to says in line 6-8 even though it may be a little unpredictable the best thing for you to do is sit back and enjoy the ride. Although you may go through the rocky rough patches in your marriage where pain and doubt take over when you’re at the end you can see how far you have come since then and look at all that you have learned which is expressed in the last couple of lines. Unfortunately I am too young to experience marriage myself but I have amazing parents who are married and seeing them go through their struggles and life through the marriage and them working out there rough patches and differences it really shows that this poem can relate to any relationship. The message I took from this poem is that you are going to go through some things but in the end it will be worth it and u will definitely learn something.



**This Is a Photograph of Me.**


 * 1) ====It was taken some time ago.====
 * 2) ====At first it seems to be====
 * 3) ====a smeared====
 * 4) ====print: blurred lines and grey flecks====
 * 5) ====blended with the paper;====


 * 1) ====then, as you scan====
 * 2) ====it, you see in the left-hand corner====
 * 3) ====a thing that is like a branch: part of a tree====
 * 4) ====(balsam or spruce) emerging====
 * 5) ====and, to the right, halfway up====
 * 6) ====what ought to be a gentle====
 * 7) ====slope, a small frame house.====


 * 1) ====In the background there is a lake,====
 * 2) ====and beyond that, some low hills.====


 * 1) ====(The photograph was taken====
 * 2) ====the day after I drowned)====


 * 1) ====I am in the lake, in the center====
 * 2) ====of the picture, just under the surface.====


 * 1) ====It is difficult to say where====
 * 2) ====precisely, or to say====
 * 3) ====how large or small I am:====
 * 4) ====the effect of water====
 * 5) ====on light is a distortion====

Margaret Atwood, 1939
 * 1) ====but if you look long enough,====
 * 2) ====eventually====
 * 3) ====you will be able to see me.)====

In the following poem //__The Photography of Me__// by Margaret Atwood is a very deep conceive poem. Although I will have to say this is one of my favorite poems written by Margaret. The poem uses a lot of symbolism and imagery to allow the vision of the picture. As well as her tone in the poem is intuitive to the theme. In lines one through five she has a great use of adjectives and imagery to show you how the picture looks now. Margaret uses words such as smeared, blurred lines, and grey flecks to describe the picture in the beginning. In lines six through fourteen she is describing the objects in the picture and where they are located. Her tone in the beginning is humane, gentle like, and informative. In lines fifteen through eighteen the tone remains the same but it is almost as if the demeanor or mood changes. Margaret says and I quote “(The photograph was taken the day after I drowned.)” taken from lines fifteen and sixteen, this is almost like the turning point of the entire poem. The drowning of this person in the poem symbolizes LOST. In lines seventeen through twenty-three she begins to stumble on the precision on where she is located in the photo. If you notice in the beginning of the poem she know exactly where everything is on the photo she even gives you a visual on the precise location. Unfortunately in lines seventeen through twenty-three her precision on the location of everything becomes faint, she says and I quote “It is difficult to say where precisely, or to say how large or small I am” taken from lines nineteen through twenty-one, this is almost ironic to me how she can locate everything except for herself. In lines twenty-four through twenty- six she says that if you look hard enough you will eventually see her. The entire poem has a greater meaning than a girl getting (lost at sea). The theme I took from this poem is that a girl got lost in society she lost herself, but if she focuses on herself and who she truly is long enough she become visible. She uses the house, lake, hills, branches, and everything else to represent her surroundings which symbolize society the things around you. She can locate everything in the picture (she can locate everything in the world, everything in her society). Unfortunately when it came to trying to locate herself all she knew is that she was in the lake but couldn’t give you a precise location. In the end she says if you look hard enough and focus you can eventually see her. Don’t lose yourself!



The Night Poem it is only the wind changing to the east, it is only your father the thunder your mother the rain with its beige moon damp as a mushroom, its drowned stumps and long birds that swim, where the moss grows on all sides of the trees and your shadow is not your shadow but your reflection, when the curtain covers your door. We are the others, the ones from under the lake who stand silently beside your bed with our heads of darkness. We have come to cover you with red wool, with our tears and distant whispers. the chilly ark of your sleep, while we wait, your night father and mother with our cold hands and dead flashlight, knowing we are only the wavering shadows thrown by one candle, in this echo you will hear twenty years later. Margaret Atwood The “Night Poem” by Margaret Atwood discussed how nature could be a safety net for a child during the night. Margaret relates this poem to herself and hometown. This allows the poem to be told as a memory. Her tone in the poem changes but is very consistent at the same time. In the first stanza she is comforting and trying to calm a scared child, and towards the end like the last stanza her tone shifts into a reassuring, peaceful, calm like voice. Margaret uses personification in the begging of the poem. She says and I quote “your father is the thunder, and your mother is the rain”, she refers your father to be strong and tough and your mother gentle and soft as rain. In the second stanza Margaret uses imagery to allow the reader to picture the setting of a comforting place for a child. Nature becomes symbolic in the poem. This poem is open verse, and has no rhyming scheme. The theme that I took from this poem is that nature is security.
 * 1) There is nothing to be afraid of,
 * 1) In this country of water
 * 1) your true parents disappear
 * 1) You rock in the rain's arms

Spelling Poem My daughter plays on the floor with plastic letters, red, blue & hard yellow, learning how to spell, spelling, how to make spells. I wonder how many women denied themselves daughters, closed themselves in rooms, drew the curtains so they could mainline words. A child is not a poem, a poem is not a child. there is no either/or. However. I return to the story <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.33px;">of the woman caught in the war <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.33px;">& in labour, her thighs tied <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.33px;">together by the enemy <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.33px;">so she could not give birth. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.33px;">Ancestress: the burning witch, <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.33px;">her mouth covered by leather <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.33px;">to strangle words.

<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.33px;">A word after a word <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.33px;">after a word is power. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.33px;">At the point where language falls away <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.33px;">from the hot bones, at the point <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.33px;">where the rock breaks open and darkness <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.33px;">flows out of it like blood, at    <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.33px;">the melting point of granite <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.33px;">when the bones know <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.33px;">they are hollow & the word <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.33px;">splits & doubles & speaks <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.33px;">the truth & the body <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.33px;">itself becomes a mouth. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.33px;">This is a metaphor. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.33px;">How do you learn to spell? <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.33px;">Blood, sky & the sun, <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.33px;">your own name first, <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.33px;">your first naming, your first name, <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.33px;">your first word. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.33px;">Margaret Atwood

<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.33px;">The following poem “Spelling Poem” by Margaret Atwood talks about the stereotypes put upon women and their capability in the world. In the first stanza she has great and strong use of imagery. She gives a description of her daughter playing with plastic letters and then the setting change when she begins to talk about war. Atwood writes this poem to describe the power of words and how they really affect things. The mood shifts throughout the poem from happy, dark, to sad. Symbolism is shown in the beginning with the plastic letters which represent language, and in the middle of the poem when she discusses the women caught in the war which symbolize struggle of the past. The meaning of the poem spells out the story of how women didn’t always have a voice. That being able to have your own voice is very important. I also took that words are important and women knowledge is power.

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