POETRY AND PERSONAL IDENTITY

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Many kinds of poems that we can read or make by our creativity. But my topic today for my paper is poetry and personal identity. According to the Wikipedia that poetry is a form of literary art which uses the aesthetic qualities of language to evoke meaning in addition to, or in place of, the prosaic ostensible meaning. Then personal identity is the numerical identity of persons through time. In this paper we will also discuss about race and ethnicity, gender, and personal identity. 

The ethnic of the writer is also influence the writer’s poem. The ethnic itself  according to the Wikipedia is a group of people whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage, often consisting of a common language, a common culture (often including a shared religion) and/or an ideology that stresses common ancestry or endogamy. Next about gender is a range of characteristics used to distinguish between males and females, particularly in the cases of men and women and the masculine and feminine attributes assigned to them. And about personal identity come from the poems that poets create, can make the critical thinking of it.

After knowing the point of this paper, so the writer will continue this paper with the title “Poetry and Personal Identity” in more explanation. The writer hopes that it will give many advantages for the reader who read it.

CHAPTER II

            In this chapter, the writer wants to analyze the poem from Julia Alvarez that has content in race and ethnicity, and personal identity. Before that, the writer will write about the meaning of each point.

Poetry is honestly from the poets to create their poems. In the poems there are Confessional poetry made such frank self-definition and Successful poem; the readers can feel the emotion of the poem that can be powerful.

Then about gender as my first definition is in the poem that can catch male and female, experience of life and often influence how we speak, write, and interpret language. In the poem also implied the race and ethnicity which content of the country or habitual language. It is also about the member of identity in the poets’ country. Next personal identity come from the poems that poets create, can make the critical thinking of poem. It shows how the poets using their languages come real powerful emotion.

Before going to the poem’s analysis that Julia Alvarez has dual identity; as Dominican and American. She wants born in New York but spent her childhood in the Dominican Republic.

Julia Alvarez

THE WOMAN ON MY MOTHER’S SIDE WERE KNOWN (FROM “33”) 1984

The woman on my mother’s side were known

For beauty and were given lovely names

Passed down for generations. I knew them

As my pretty aunts: Laura, who could turn

Any head once, and Ada, whose husband

Was so devoted he would lay his hand

Kerchief on seats for her and when she rose

thank her; there was Rosa, who got divorced

twice, her dark eyes and thick hair were to blame;

and my mother Julia, who was a catch

and looks it in her wedding photographs.

My sister got her looks, I got her name,

And it suits me that between resemblance

And words, I got the right inheritance.

The woman on my mother’s side were known

Based on the data that mother’s side is the family of the poet whom includes her mother. It is the implicitly reflects the close extended family structure of Latin cultures.

For beauty and were given lovely names

According to that word, Beauty refers to the Alvarez’s sister and her mother’s side of the family. Alvarez explores the word beauty to impress about her proud of in her family. It is not only the name but also the culture or language of her family.

Passed down for generations. I knew them

In my analysis for the word generations is about the decline of Alvarez’s family. She understands about her family and her relatives more. It is also back to the identity of private mythology of the poet.

And it suits me that between resemblance

Based on the data that resemblance is refers to the face and attitude of Alvarez who gets the same behavior from her sister. In this case Alvarez also puts the implicitly of gender in her race family.

And words, I got the right inheritance

According to data, the right inheritance is refers to the ethnic of Alvarez’s family and culture of her life. It is the background of Alvarez in the writing her poem.

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ENDING of the ANALYSIS

Based on the Alvarez’s poem that she writes her life in that poem. She gives implicitly of her poem as gender, race and ethnicity, and personal identity. But we have to consider that the categories do not eliminate other writers to explore their writing. According to Alvarez that writing poem’s personal perspective is reflected in its formal aspects likes imagery, tone, metaphor, and sound. Observing how formal aspects embody the author’s special themes and subjects will be central to appreciating his or her voice.

REFERENCE

Steinmann, M and Willen, G., Literature for Writing: second edition, Wadsworth Publishing Company: California.



By: Nurul Abidah