Literary Analysis

Activity 8.5:

Read the poem 'Beauty' again and choose words from the poem that appeal to each of the senses. Organize the words in columns in  table, like the one below. One word may fit into more than one category. Examples have been included.

Discussion:

Beauty

is a fat black woman

walking the fields

pressing a breezed

hibiscus to her cheek

while the sun lights up

her feet

Beauty

is a fat black woman

riding the waves

drifting the happy oblivion

while the sea turns back

to hug her shape

1) Describe what is literally happening in each line. Try paraphrasing the action that occurs.

The main idea of the first stanza is to describe what beauty is, maybe to contradict the main stereotype of a blue eyed blonde being the image of Beauty. A fat black woman may not be attractive physically but Im guessing that the idea of the author is to say that the beauty it's not only referring to our physical attributes but for the attitude of the person as well.

2) What do you say to the claim that this is a poem about love?

I don't believe that this poem talks about love in any way, Im sure that the main theme of the poem is to talk about the beauty's stigmas and how the society describes and decides what's beautiful and what is not.

3) Comment on the rhyming scheme of the poem. How is it like the sea?

There's a rhyming pattern on the first stanza, but on the second one we're able to see a blank rhyme scheme, I guess this sounds may sound like the sea as the sea makes a noise that can't be repeated, a very particular sound that it's easy to recognise.

Activity 8.6:

For the extracts below state: 

1) Wether they are smilies or metaphors

2) What the literal and figurative terms are

3) What is named and/or what is implied