Rachel+Hadas

By Jessica Ho
=Biography= ====Rachel Hadas was born on November 8th, 1984 in New York City, NY. She is an American poet, essayist, and translator. Hadas studied classics at Harvard, poetry at Johns Hopkins, and comparative literature at Princeton. She spent four years in Greece between college and graduate school, an experience that surfaced often in her works. She taught in the English Department of Newark campus of Rutgers University, taught courses in literature and writing at Columbia and Princeton, and served on the poetry faculty of the Sewanee Writers’ Conference and the West Chester Poetry Conference. She was also a Director’s Fellow at the Center for Scholars & Writers with the New York Public Library. Hadas has been the recipient of a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship, two Ingram Merrill Foundation grants, the O.B. Hardison Award from the Folger Shakespeare Library, and an Award in Literature from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.====

=The Red Hat=

====“The Red Hat”, by Rachel Hadas, is told from the narrative of parents that have a young boy who has begun to walk himself to school. Hadas uses symbolism to express the emotions these parents are feeling towards their son’s growing independence. Hadas describes the son walking to school on his own, to symbolize that the parents have to let their son grow up and gain independence. Hadas also creates this symbolism by saying, “..parallel paths part, he goes alone from there” (lines 9-10). In line 8, the parents are saying, ‘Already ties are feelings and not fact, that their connection is no longer concrete. Hadas continues to use symbolism as she uses a red hat to symbolize the son. “Since the red hat vanished from our sight” (line 23) is a symbol of the son disappearing into the streets as he makes his way to school. “He now is hustled forward by the pull of something far more powerful than school” (lines15-16) is symbolizing and foreshadowing the son’s growing independence. Hadas also uses imagery throughout this poem. In the first stanza, Hadas vividly describes how the son and his parents walk “semi-alone”. Hadas included descriptions of the path they walked and how they walked it, “he walks up on the east side of the West End, we on the west side” (lines 5-6). The tone of this poem suggested the struggle the parents had to deal with as they are learning to let go of their son. The reader can visualize the parents glancing at their son in lines 6-7, “Glances can extend (and do) across the street, not eye contact”. Hadas also speaks figuratively as she talks about how the parents’ love continues with the boy even though they do not, “The watcher’s heart stretches, elastic in its love and fear.” (lines 10-11). The first two lines of the poem introduce the main focus of the poem. The remaining lines are in a sequential AA,BB rhyme scheme. I personally loved this poem. It was very heartfelt and gives great insight of what every parent goes through, or will go through, as they are raising a child.====

= = =The Other Side=

====In “The Other Side” by Rachel Hadas, Hadas uses free verse to express the many contradicting emotions that one has to go through in life. “Impressionist painters capture sun sparkling over waves as slots and bars brimful of radiance but self-contained, capsules of dappled light.”(lines 1-4) is used figuratively as an introduction to life. Life at first, is beautiful and innocent. The tone shifted from blissfulness to seriousness in line 5, “Having said dappled, it was time to think exactly what such spottedness might mean.” Hadas used imagery when she said, “And what it meant was two sides of a coin” (line 7). In this line, her main focus starts to surface. This is where Hadas starts to introduce the fact that choices in life will always contradict and conflict with each other. “The urge to complicate, the urge to simplify” (lines 9-10) refers to the complicated things in life. “The wish to keep, the wish to give away or just get rid of” (lines 11-13) is expressing situations where someone has to decide what is best for them. Should they keep it? Is it toxic? Is it beneficial? That is what lines 11-13 is portraying. “The itch to leave, the itch to stay” (lines 14-15) refers to the bumps in the road that everyone has to overcome. It is deciding if you have the will to keep going or the desire to give up. In lines 16-19, Hadas introducing all the negative aspects that comes to eye as one ages. Line 20,”light breaking up in ripples at my feet”, is a figurative statement meaning that the ripples are a symbol for wisdom. Over a lifespan, the ripples of time will dim the light that one has when at a younger age. When younger, one would have a very optimistic view of life. Even though Hadas does not use a lot of figurative devices in this poem, it spoke to me. It lays out what comes with age. It is not one of those poems that are unrealistically optimistic, nor is it pessimistic. This poem was realistic.====

= = =Summer Nights and Days=

====In Rachel Hadas’s “Summer Nights and Days”, a pessimistic view of life is portrayed. Hadas used diction to help get her views across. She used positive adjectives, such as “green, lightness, moonrise” as reversal to emphasize the feeling of loneliness. Instead of figuratively expresses her feelings of lonliness, Hadas took a more direct approach. “So far the nights feel lonelier than the days”(line 1) perfectly demonstrates how she took a direct approach and introduces the focus of the poem from the beginning. The overall tone of the poem is loneliness. “In light, the living keep me company, and memories of voices through the years” (lines 2-3) gives off a melodramatic vibe. Line 3 further drags the reader into the darkness that the narrator is describing. They are so lonely, that their only company is memories. “Emerging sun-struck, you can barely spy the slow kaleidoscope of clouds and hours.”(lines 5-6) essentially is stating that even in the light, darkness is there even if it is barely visible. Always keep an open eye, because darkness is coming. It may be slowly, but it is surely on the way, even if it takes hours. “A bough has broken from the Duchess tree. Rain swelled the apples.”(lines 10-11) represent that all beautiful and sweet things in life come down or get ruined. “Too much lightness weighs heavy: the heft of the idea of home tempered with the detachment of a dream” (lines 11-13) expresses how no matter how positive something seems, there will be a negative aspect that will weigh it down. Hadas ended the poem with positive diction so that the poem does not end on too dark of a note. “Tidal pulls, like ocean, like moonrise”(line 14) are beautiful, so they lighten the mood. Overall, I did not like this poem. I did not relate to it as much, but it was really interesting to see a pessimistic view on life. I think it is cool and intriguing to step into the minds of others, and I know there are many people who feel lonely.====

= = =Sleepover=

====In “Sleepover” by Rachel Hadas, loneliness is the main factor of this poem. “Ida and Isidor Straus sleep side by side eternally in an Egyptian gallery fronting their Woodlawn mausoleum” (lines 1-3) introduces the poem with death. These two lovers are laying in their tombs, forgotten. These first three lines represent that, even if laid side by side to their lover, they are essentially alone. The reader would not get that the first time they read the poem, they would have to reread the poem to get this meaning from the first three lines. “Their boat is small” (line 4) reflects how small someone’s life is. It is sad to say, but when someone dies, it is not as big as it seems. It might be big to people who knows the person, but to the world, their death was not even noticeable. It was insignificant and small. “Nor was her body recovered from the Titanic. And yet the image of the voyage holds” (lines 5-6) refers to the movie Titanic. Rose’s body was never found, but it was not her that was remembered, it was the voyage. “Sailing the river of forgetfulness until the stars went out” (lines 11-12) is symbolically representing a fading memory, that people are forgotten once they pass. Hadas ended the poem with “leaving me to sail along alone” to express that at the end of your journey of life, you leave alone. I personally did not enjoy this poem at all. It was very sad and depressing, yet true. It is sad to think about how you leave alone. I actually had a fear of dying when I was younger. I was 6 years old, crying, thinking about what comes after death. It is such a fearful thought. If I had a choice to refer this poem to someone else, I would not. It is just too depressing.====

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