Cozy Apologia - Rita Dove Flashcards
Structure
3, 10 line stanzas
Varying sentences lengths and an informal tone
Stanza 1 - only rhyming couplets
Stanza 2 - rhyming couplets apart from last 4 lines
Stanza 3 - varied rhyming scheme throughout
Themes
Love and relationships
Context
Written in 1999 when Hurricane Floyd was threatening the West Coast of America
Dove is a black writer in a mixed relationship with German writer Fred Viebahn which would have been frowned upon
Cozy Apologia
An apologia is a Greek term for a speech to vindicate a person or in defence of one’s action. This poem is Rita Dove’s defence at being happy with her cozy domestic situation, contrary to societal expectations that she should not be with a white man
I could pick anything and think of you -
The poet begins in informal, everyday language that will daw the reader in and likely cause them to carry on reading. The dash is used to interupt the flow of thought in the poem; as to perhaps allow the poet time to create her comparisons
This lamp, the wind-still rain, the glossy blue
My pen exudes, drying matte, upon the page
Dove asserts her poetic prowess with her ability to draw an analogy between random objects and her husband. The close descriptive detail and use of ordinary objects the poem its intimacy and, ironically, its strength as the reader can relate. ‘Wind-still rain’ foreshadows the development of the hurricane
I could choose any hero, any cause or age
And, sure as shooting arrows to the heart Astride a dappled mare, legs braced as far apart
As standing in silver stirrups will allow
There you’ll be, with furrowed brow
And chain mail glinting, to set me free:
One eye smiling, the other firm upon the enemy.
The poet lists the subjects she could pick and relate them to her partner. She mockingly picks a romantic idea, ‘shooting arrows to the heart’, to suggest the accuracy of her comparison. Dove jokingly evokes the rather cliched image of the knight in shining armour and her husband as her saviour. In the final stanza he ‘rescues’ her in the best chivalric tradition by keeping her melancholy (‘blues’) at bay.
This post-postmodern age is all business: compact disks
And faxes, a do-it-now-and-take-no-risks
Event.
The Poe brings us back to the present reality. The phrase ‘post-postmodern’ designed to bamboozle the readers, most of whom will be familiar with modernism and post-modernism
Today a hurricane is nudging up the coast,
Oddly male: Big Bad Floyd, who brings a host
Of daydreams: Awkward reminiscences
Of teenage crushes on worthless boys
Rita Dove darts from subject to subject, to suggest her wandering mind. She personifies it as ‘Big Bad Floyd’, in contrast to her ‘knight-in-shining-armour’ partner, as to suggest she needs him to save her. The ‘daydreams’ are of the boys that failed to match up to him. The name of the hurricane triggers memories of her contrasting first experiences of ‘love’ – her immature, transient crushes on ‘worthless’ boys
Whose only talent was to kiss you senseless.
They all had sissy names—Marcel, Percy, Dewey;
Were thin as licorice and as chewy,
Sweet with a dark and hollow center
In terms of humour this is the dramatic climax, starting with ‘kiss you senseless’, bringing to mind clandestine kisses at school that leave the girl with sore lips and the use of ‘sissy names’ would further add to the humour. The rhyming ‘Dewey’ and ‘chewy’ is also quite humorous. The ‘hollow centre’ signifies the emptiness of these crushes. Compared to her current relationship these boys had no substance.
Floyd’s
Cussing up a storm.
The poet darts back to the personified hurricane, using the colloquial ‘cussing up’ to make the storm seem less dangerous. ‘ The enjambment helps the poem to flow, suggesting again her wandering mind.
You’re bunkered in your
Aerie, I’m perched in mine
(Twin desks, computers, hardwood floors
Her partner is ‘bunkered’, or tucked away for safety and ‘bunkered’ implies underground. The couple have suitably matching offices as everything about them suggests harmony.
We’re content, but fall short of the Divine
The Poet refuses to compare their relationship to Religion,believing nothing can match it. It is ironic as most happy couples say they are ‘blessed’ to find each other
Still, it’s embarrassing, this happiness -
Who’s satisfied simply with what’s good for us,
When has the ordinary ever been news
The poet suggests their love is embarrassing perhaps because she is so full of happiness and glee that it is almost childlike and immature. Who’s satisfied simply with what’s good for us,
When has the ordinary ever been news
And yet, because nothing else will do
To keep me from melancholy (call it blues),
I fill this stolen time with you
She knows that the only thing that can make her feel less sad and comfort her in this dangerous situation is thoughts of him. An optimistic ending
