Cozy Apologia Flashcards
introduction
Written in 1999, ‘Cozy Apologia’ is a poem about the poet’s profound love for her husband, set against the arrival of Hurricane Floyd, the deadliest hurricane in US history. As the couple shelter from the storm at home, Dove depicts the strength of her emotion, proving that even ordinary love is worthy of poetic tribute.
form
- ode - ‘for fred’
- shows that the poem is autobiographical
- further foregrounds the idea of love
- free verse - conversational
rhyme scheme
- rhyme scheme settled down in last stanza -> different pattern - suggests although Dove has not been hurt by hurricane floyd, it has had a profound impact on her
- second stanza - no regular rhyme scheme - floyd disrupts writing and exerts power over people -> stanza’s rhythm becomes heavily disrupted
- structure reflecting content - chaos and disruption grows as floyd gets closer - nature is more powerful than man - can disrupt man’s writing
structure
- 3 stanzas - 10 lines in each
title
Title juxtaposes the informal and homely with a formal defence — an apologia; even if their love is comfortable rather than passionate, it is still worthy of a love poem
end of second stanza - structure
- ‘Floyd’s’ -> stanza break makes it stand out - emphasises its importance in the poem - hurricane is able to exert its influence over the poem’s structure once more
structural juxtaposition
Juxtaposition between the dreamlike quality of the first stanza with the reality in the second stanza
last line of poem - pronouns
- recalls the use of pronouns in the first line
- ‘I’ and ‘you’ - sense of completeness -> representative of how complete the love is between her and fred
2nd stanza - structural qualities
- caesurae and enjambment - stanza’s rhythm becomes heavily disrupted
- structure reflecting content - chaos and disruption grows as floyd gets closer - nature is more powerful than man - can disrupt man’s writing
first stanza - structural/rhythmic qualities?
- 5 pairs of rhyming couplets - harmony - balanced
- suggestive of their love
- emphasises the ideas they support - emphatically traditional and ordinary love - suggests tradition and simplicity
finish the quote: ‘this lamp…
..the wind-still rain, the glossy blue’
finish the quote: ‘my pen exudes..
..drying matte, upon the page’
‘this lamp, the wind-still rain, the glossy-blue’
‘my pen exudes, drying matte, upon the page’
- entire half of the first stanza
- assonance in ‘blue’ and ‘exudes’ - adds cohesion to the lines - reflecting dove’s connection to her beloved and creates a soothing sound
- lists in the stanza -> lines 2+3 - emphasises dove’s love for fred and emphasises the ideas they support
- their lives are based wholly around each other- indicative of the time they spend together - anything can remind rita of fred
‘lamp’
‘pen’
- domestic imagery
- ordinary, everyday objects - rita and fred’s love is ordinary
- poem is sentimental
‘my pen exudes, drying matte, upon the page’
- writing reminds her of her husband
- suggests that he is equally, if not more, important to her - fred is also a writer
finish the quote: ‘big..
..bad floyd’
‘big bad floyd’
- personification
- playground bully
- undermines its power and devastation
finish the quote: ‘astride a…
…dappled mare’
finish the quote: ‘silver..
..stirrups’
finish the quote: ‘chain..
..mail glinting’
‘chain mail glinting’
- compares fred to a ‘knight in shining armour’
- cliched images of love
- humourous
- suggests that their love is traditional
finish the quote: ‘to set..
..me free’
‘to set me free’
- freedom
finish the quote: ‘cussing..
..up a storm’
‘cussing up a storm’
- personified as rude, not dangerous
- dove belittles the hurricane
finish the quote: ‘were thin as..
… licorice and as chewy’
finish the quote: ‘sweet…
…with a dark and hollow centre’
‘were thin as licorice and as chewy’
‘sweet with a dark and hollow centre’
- suggests that Dove’s childhood crushes have no substance
- thin and hollow
- fred seems superior
finish the quote: ‘you’re bunkered..
..in your Aerie’
finish the quote: ‘i’m perched…
..in mine’
‘you’re bunkered in your Aerie’
‘i’m perched in mine’
- compares herself to a bird -> she feels at home -> thread of floyd diminshed
- bird imagery links the couple together
- emphasised by ‘twin’ in the next line
‘bunkered’
- safety and security
finish the quote: ‘twin desks…
..computers, hardwood floors’
‘twin desks, computers, hardwood floors’
- reinforces idea that dove’s love for her husband is ordinary
- domestic imagery
finish the quote: ‘big..
..bad floyd’
‘big bad floyd’
- rushed, transitory nature of the hurricane as an extended metaphor for unrealistic passion
- HURRICANE IS A CONCEIT
- her satisfaction with being “average”
- counter realistic views of love - fairytale
- passionate love as delusory
‘this post..
..-post-modern age’
finish the quote: ‘they all had..
..sissy names’
‘this post-post-modern age’
‘they all had sissy names’
- brackets
- colloquial language
- randomly changes topic in stanza two
- stream of consciousness
finish the quote: ‘teenage…
…crushes’
‘teenage crushes’
‘were as thin as licorice and as chewy’
- metaphorical language
finish the quote: ‘we’re content..
…but fall short of the Divine’
‘we’re content but fall short of the Divine’
- don’t have ground-breaking, passionate love, they are comfortable in their relationship
- thinks it’s ‘embarrassing’ for the ‘happiness’ of settling for average - society has told her she shouldn’t feel happy - rejecting idealised love - LIKE VALENTINE
finish the quote: ‘And yet…
..because nothing else will do’
finish the quote: ‘to keep me from melancholy..
..(call it blues), I fill this stolen time with you’
‘And yet, because nothing else will do’
‘To keep me from melancholy (call it blues), I fill this stolen time with you’
- dove doesn’t care what people say/think about her love for fred
- doesn’t care that it is embarrassing
- no one is satisfied by it - it isn’t news worthy but its still love and her love for fred is important to her -> that is all that matters
finish the quote: ‘oddly…
…male’
‘oddly male’
- hurricanes are traditionally named after women -> dove mocks hurricane floyd
- doesn’t take it seriously
- undermined hurricane floyd and downplayed its power
mood and tone
- loving tone when dove writes about her husband, fred -> ‘think of you’ -> when discussing HF or her childhood crushes, dove uses a mocking tone - suggests fred is superior
- dismissive tone when talking about her childhood crushes -> suggests fred is superior
- light-hearted tone - ‘post-post-modern age’
- intimate tone - ‘I’ ‘you’ - directly to fred - is comfortable with sharing her thoughts out loud - she is comfortable with fred - conversational tone
- traditionally romantic mood established - ‘hero’
final line - form
The iambic tetrameter in the final line reinforces Dove’s comfort in her relationship
key quotations for everyday life
“This lamp, the wind-still rain, the glossy blue
My pen exudes, drying matte, upon the page”
“This post-post-modern age is all business: compact disks
And faxes, a do-it-now-and-take-no-risks”
“Who’s satisfied simply with what’s good for us,
When has the ordinary ever been news?”
ANALYSIS FOR KEY QUOTES FOR EVERYDAY LIFE
“This lamp, the wind-still rain, the glossy blue
My pen exudes, drying matte, upon the page”
“This post-post-modern age is all business: compact disks
And faxes, a do-it-now-and-take-no-risks”
“Who’s satisfied simply with what’s good for us,
When has the ordinary ever been news?”
The speaker finds reminders of her husband in everything, even in an ordinary lamp. This contrasts with the poetic tradition of comparing a lover with grandiose images such as summer, heaven and stars. This implies the authenticity of their love and strength in the ordinary
Prosaic images of “compact disks/And faxes” portray the mundanity of life, in sharp contrast to mythological or traditional tales
The rhetorical question criticises the human tendency to value the extraordinary over the ordinary
key quotations for love
“I could pick anything and think of you—
This lamp, the wind-still rain, the glossy blue”
“And, sure as shooting arrows to the heart,
Astride a dappled mare, legs braced as far apart”
“We’re content, but fall short of the Divine.
Still, it’s embarrassing, this happiness—”
ANALYSIS FOR KEY QUOTES FOR LOVE
“I could pick anything and think of you—
This lamp, the wind-still rain, the glossy blue”
“And, sure as shooting arrows to the heart,
Astride a dappled mare, legs braced as far apart”
“We’re content, but fall short of the Divine.
Still, it’s embarrassing, this happiness—”
The first two lines are written in iambic pentameter (a common structure found in love sonnets) but lacks a fixed metrical structure throughout. This departure from the established form suggests the speaker’s love does not conform to an idealised stereotype
The allusion to “arrows to the heart” humorously parallels Cupid’s influence on their love, while the next line parodies a heroic knight’s tale. These grandiose genres contrast with the poem’s depiction of a warm, intimate bond that does not need elevation
Caesura highlights the contrast between their current contentment and the ideal of divine happiness. It highlights the poem’s message of valuing ordinary moments of happiness, however mundane they appear
key quotations for men
“Astride a dappled mare, legs braced as far apart
As standing in silver stirrups will allow—”
“Oddly male: Big Bad Floyd”
“They all had sissy names—Marcel, Percy, Dewey;
Were thin as licorice and as chewy”
ANALYSIS FOR KEY QUOTES FOR MEN
“Astride a dappled mare, legs braced as far apart
As standing in silver stirrups will allow—”
“Oddly male: Big Bad Floyd”
“They all had sissy names—Marcel, Percy, Dewey;
Were thin as licorice and as chewy”
Although light-hearted, the physicality of the image with its sexual undertones (“astride” with legs “apart”) denotes masculinity and sexual prowess and provides a sharp contrast with the “sissy” boys from the speaker’s teenage years
“Oddly male” may refer to the practice of assigning female names to US hurricanes, while also highlighting Floyd’s power. The hurricane is personified and implicitly attributed with the characteristics of “Big Bad John”, a popular song from the 1960s. This links the present day to her memories of crushes in her past
Colloquial term “sissy” adds humour and lightheartedness. The simile is whimsical, suggesting the boys of Dove’s teenage crushes were insubstantial in contrast to Fred
key quotations for nature
“Today a hurricane is nudging up the coast”
“Floyd’s
Cussing up a storm. You’re bunkered in your
Aerie, I’m perched in mine”
ANALYSIS FOR KEY QUOTES FOR NATURE
“Today a hurricane is nudging up the coast”
“Floyd’s
Cussing up a storm. You’re bunkered in your
Aerie, I’m perched in mine”
“Nudging” is a surprising verb to use as it means “gently pushing”. This adds irony and helps to highlight the power of their love as mightier than the power of the storm
Personification of the hurricane, together with the use of zoomorphism, highlights the magnitude of the approaching danger. This contrasts the portrayal of the storm as an angry individual with the serene depiction of two birds in their next
