The Colossus Flashcards
1
Q
Key points
A
- Another father poem, drawing on the legend of the Colossus of Rhodes, a giant statue that tumbled into the river
- The first- person speaker describes her efforts to reassemble fragments of him as a way of exploring memories of her father and a lack of closure about his death
- Composed of six unrhyming quintets
- Electra complex in evidence
- Motif of body parts, especially mouth (link to Electra complex)
2
Q
Key quotations
A
- ‘I shall never get you put together entirely’
- ‘Mouthpiece of the dead’
- ‘Nights, I squat in the cornucopia of your left ear’