Cozy Apologia

Question 1

Title

Answer 1

• Use of the noun ‘apologia’ in the title indicates that this poem is a written defence of coziness. Perhaps Dove is defending the warm feeling that she has for her husband despite the chaos of Hurricane Floyd.
• the dedication ‘for Fred’ makes it clear to the reader that this is an autobiographical poem making Dove’s love for her husband more personal.

Question 2

stanza 1-1

Answer 2

• use of pronouns ‘I’ and ‘You’ in the opening line creates a very intimate personal tone indicating her unconditional love for Fred.
• In the second line, Dove uses a list of ordinary domestic images such as ‘lamp’, ‘wind-still rain’, and ‘the gloss blue’ to show that her love is quite ordinary. This contrasts to imagery found in traditional love poetry. This emphatic list also creates a conversational tone which follows Dove’s chain of thought while simultaneously emphasize the strength of doves love for Fred.

Question 3

stanza 1-2

Answer 3

• Dove uses the traditional cliché of the romantic ‘hero’ ‘shooting arrows to the heart’. This refers to Cupid’s arrows exaggerating the traditional love imagery. This phrase also starts a second longer list in the stanza which uses caesurae to create a conversational tone which follows Dove’s chain of thought while simultaneously emphasize the strength of doves love for Fred.
• Dove compares her husband to a knight-in-shining-armour through listing multiple successive stereotypical images of chivalry such as ‘astride a dappled mare’ / ‘silver stirrups’ / ‘chainmail glinting’ creating a cliched yet humorous image of love preventing the poem from becoming too sentimental.
• The following phrase ‘to set me free’ confirms that Dove is mirroring The Lady of Shallot where Sir Lancelot comes in ‘silver stirrups’ to set her free. The alliteration ‘silver stirrups’ reinforces her domestic and happy relationship while extending this cliché image.

Question 4

stanza 2-1

Answer 4

• In the second stanza Dove acknowledges the fact that hurricanes are traditionally named after ‘women’ mocking Hurricane Floyd with the phrase ‘oddly male’. This humour undermines the danger posed by the hurricane suggesting that she does not take it seriously.
• This sentiment is further shown as Dove refers to Floyd as ‘big bad Floyd’. This personifies hurricane Floyd as a playground bully mimicking the trope of the ‘big bad wolf’ creating a dismissive tone which undermines its power and devastation.
• Caesura and enjambment occurred frequently in this stanza has seen in the enjambment of ‘discs and faxes’ or the caesura caused by the colon after ‘male’. This heavily disrupts the stanzas rhythm reflecting that Hurricane Floyd is getting closer increasing the amount of chaos and disruption in the poem. This highlights that despite Dove trying to mock Hurricane Floyd nature is much more powerful than man disrupting man’s writing.

Question 5

stanza 2-2

Answer 5

• Dove uses a dismissive tone when describing her childhood crushes - ‘only talent… kiss you senseless’. The playful language emphasises that she doesn’t take these relationships seriously – highlights how love was naïve, depthless, and superficial at that age. This is further emphasized by the adjective ‘sissy’ which is used to describe her teenage crushes as a boy, who seems weak or cowardly / acts in a stereotypically feminine way.
• This contrasts these ‘sissy’ teenage crushes with her husband Fred (the knight in shining armour / ‘silver stirrups’) making her husband seem all the more superior by contrast.
• the pseudo romantic rhyming couplets from earlier in the poem are replaced with a patternless sequence of rhyme reiterating the idea that Floyd brings disruption and chaos and exerts power over people.

Question 6

stanza 3-1

Answer 6

• Floyd has been personified in ‘cussing up a storm’ which makes the hurricane sound rude rather and dangerous undermining Floyd’s devastation again. The colloquial phrase ‘cussing’ makes the poem seem personal contributing to the poems humour – this stops the poem from being too serious.
• Dove has compared herself to a bird as seen in ‘You’re bunkered in your Aerie, I’m perched in mine’. This bird imagery links the couple together. ‘Aerie’ and ‘bunkered’ has connotations of safety and security as an ‘Aerie’ is a nest of a bird of prey which is usually high up in a tree or on a cliff – gives the impression that dove feels at home in the storm rather than being threatened by it – further undermines the power of the hurricane.

Question 7

stanza 3-2

Answer 7

• The list of everyday objects ‘twin desks, computers, hardwood floors’ adds to the impression that the love shared by Dove and Fred is traditional and ordinary – contrasts the cliches earlier in the poem and the use of brackets helps to make the tone of the poem seem conversational.
• Similar to the poem’s first line, the poems last line begins and ends with the pronouns ‘I’ and ‘you’ - creates a very intimate personal tone indicating her unconditional love for Fred - forms a sense of completeness which exaggerates how complete the love is between Dove and Fred.

Question 8

quotes

Answer 8

1-1:
* I, you
* ‘lamp’, ‘wind-still rain’, and ‘the gloss blue’
1-2:
* ‘hero’ ‘shooting arrows to the heart
* astride a dappled mare’ / ‘silver stirrups’ / ‘chainmail glinting’
* to set me free’ / ‘silver stirrups’
2-1:
* oddly male
* big bad Floyd’
* discs and faxes’
2-2:
* - ‘only talent… kiss you senseless’.
* sissy’
* pseudo romantic rhyming couplets
3-1:
* cussing up a storm
* You’re bunkered in your Aerie, I’m perched in mine’
3-2:
twin desks, computers, hardwood floors
‘I’ and ‘you’