The Century Quilt Poem Analysis
Michelle Wong
12 October 2015
AP Literature
Ms. Taylor
The Century Quilt Response
The poem The Century Quilt by Marilyn Nelson Waniek serves as a nostalgic reflection of the history of a cherished quilt, which connects the speaker’s life to her diverse heritage. Wainek’s use of enjambment, personification, and colorful imagery develops a speaker and a character that demonstrates affection for the quilt’s qualities and reveals a more complex underlying message about the quilt’s impact on how the speaker perceives her life and family.
The author employs imagery throughout the poem by pairing vivid colors with other characters and figures to contribute to a more complex meaning. This visual imagery is found in line 3 when the speaker described …show more content…
An instance of this continuous flow of words can be found in lines 9 to 12, when the author reflects on how “I remembered how I’d planned to inherit that blanket...how we used to wrap ourselves at play in its folds and be chieftains and princesses. The enjambment serves a purpose by letting an idea carry itself through the poem, clearly illustrating the innocence and love for the quilt that the speaker maintains in youth and the hope to carry these qualities and the happy memories that the quilt invokes throughout the course of her life. The lack of caesura in this quote also signifies how she was less contemplative at younger age, but still was naturally passionate about the blanket. However, in the third stanza, the enjambment becomes less frequent, especially towards the end of the poem. After line 37, the author introspectively reflects, “I’d dream of myself, of my childhood of miracles, of my father’s burnt umber pride, of my mother’s ochre gentleness.” Each comma in this line shifts the next phrase to a new line. The punctuations positioned at the ends of the sentences briefly add pauses, which encourages the reader to focus on and think about each line from the perspective of the speaker, and the message that each line conveys about her dreams of experiencing “miracles,” “pride,” or …show more content…
It illustrates the power of the quilt to connect the speaker to other lives in her family. As previously noted, the yellow, white, and brown shades on the quilt resembles the colors of the skin tones of her family. Therefore, the quilt is an active representation of the people in her family that the speaker identifies with and is a part of. The gestures of “caressing” by the imaginary fingers of the colors of the quilt represent the intimacy and trust that the blanket evokes. It suggests that the speaker’s heritage is deeply close to her. This gentle motion of stroking that the speaker hopes will ease her transition into death “into the silence,” along with the wish that she would like to die under the quilt may symbolize the intentions of living for and taking the values of her culture and history with her in
12 October 2015
AP Literature
Ms. Taylor
The Century Quilt Response
The poem The Century Quilt by Marilyn Nelson Waniek serves as a nostalgic reflection of the history of a cherished quilt, which connects the speaker’s life to her diverse heritage. Wainek’s use of enjambment, personification, and colorful imagery develops a speaker and a character that demonstrates affection for the quilt’s qualities and reveals a more complex underlying message about the quilt’s impact on how the speaker perceives her life and family.
The author employs imagery throughout the poem by pairing vivid colors with other characters and figures to contribute to a more complex meaning. This visual imagery is found in line 3 when the speaker described …show more content…
An instance of this continuous flow of words can be found in lines 9 to 12, when the author reflects on how “I remembered how I’d planned to inherit that blanket...how we used to wrap ourselves at play in its folds and be chieftains and princesses. The enjambment serves a purpose by letting an idea carry itself through the poem, clearly illustrating the innocence and love for the quilt that the speaker maintains in youth and the hope to carry these qualities and the happy memories that the quilt invokes throughout the course of her life. The lack of caesura in this quote also signifies how she was less contemplative at younger age, but still was naturally passionate about the blanket. However, in the third stanza, the enjambment becomes less frequent, especially towards the end of the poem. After line 37, the author introspectively reflects, “I’d dream of myself, of my childhood of miracles, of my father’s burnt umber pride, of my mother’s ochre gentleness.” Each comma in this line shifts the next phrase to a new line. The punctuations positioned at the ends of the sentences briefly add pauses, which encourages the reader to focus on and think about each line from the perspective of the speaker, and the message that each line conveys about her dreams of experiencing “miracles,” “pride,” or …show more content…
It illustrates the power of the quilt to connect the speaker to other lives in her family. As previously noted, the yellow, white, and brown shades on the quilt resembles the colors of the skin tones of her family. Therefore, the quilt is an active representation of the people in her family that the speaker identifies with and is a part of. The gestures of “caressing” by the imaginary fingers of the colors of the quilt represent the intimacy and trust that the blanket evokes. It suggests that the speaker’s heritage is deeply close to her. This gentle motion of stroking that the speaker hopes will ease her transition into death “into the silence,” along with the wish that she would like to die under the quilt may symbolize the intentions of living for and taking the values of her culture and history with her in