Sample Question

Colour and sound provide some of the most vivid effects in poetry. How have at least two poems that you have studied used such visual and auditory aspects as these to enrich their poems?


"The Words Under the Words" and "My Grandmother in the Stars" used many visual aspects to poetry the figure of the author's grandma vividly. Since they are the autobiographic poems, the author wrote the poems mostly by recalling the pictures. Therefore, visuality is strong for readers. For example, in "The Words Under the Words", the author described the scene that her grandmother bakes, "My grandmother's days are made of bread, around pat-pat and the slow baking. She waits by the oven watching a strange car circle the streets." It actually also guides readers to think of the smell of bread, and the line shows the auditory aspect first. It shows the warm picture that grandmother is baking bread and waiting beside the oven. The smell of the bread escapes from the oven and fills the room. The heat and the smell warm your heart. It represents the grandmother's figure: a warm and kind woman. Then, "She waits by the oven watching a strange car circle the streets. Maybe it holds her son, lost to America." We can know that the grandmother's son "disappears" in America. At least the grandmother lost her connection with her son, and that is the reason that the grandmother stares at the cars, hoping her son will show up in the car. The cars are angularly cold, which contrast to the bread, and the picture is clear. Therefore, the visual reveals the strong feeling of solitude strongly.

"My Grandmother in the Stars" is written to remember the author's grandmother.  The author first described her mournful heart thinking of her grandmother.  Then, in the second stanza, she described the picture that after her grandmother left, "Just now the neighbor's horse must be standing patiently, hoof on stone, waiting for his day to open.  What you think of him, and the village's one heroic cow, is the knowledge I wish to gather."  Every subject in the author's eye reminded her of her grandmother, and it also recalled her memory being with her grandmother, "I bow to your rugged feet, the moth-eaten scarves that knot your hair."  In this poem, we can know that the author's grandmother is nice to not only her family but also respect to every living thing.  In the grandmother's world, there is no war, and people are welcomed to live in it no matter speaking the different languages.