Anna Rojas-Castillo

Portrait
Cecilia Meireles

I did not have this face of today
So calm
So sad
So thin.

Nor these eyes so empty
Nor this bitter mouth.

I did not have these strength less hands
So still
And cold
And dead.

I did not realize this change
So simple
So certain
So easy.

In what mirror did I lose my face?
http://www.antoniomiranda.com.br/poesia_ingles/cecilia_meireles.html 

Image result for time flies clock
This image of a clock relates to the poem because in the poem Cecilia talks about not being able to recognize herself especially her face anymore. Cecilia also talks about how these changes happened out of no where and how she didn't even know they had occurred. A clock has a face and time is constantly changing which shows what Cecilia was saying.
Cecilia Meireles was born  November 7th, 1901  and died on November 9 1964. At the age of three she was orphaned and then raised by her grandmother. Cecilia's style of writing was mostly neosymbolist and her themes included ephemeral time and the contemplative life. During her career Meireles was affected by many  literary movements however, her poetry always remained  personal.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cec%C3%ADlia_Meireles

 The poem talks about a women looking into the mirror at her face and not being able to recognize herself. The poem shows how this woman has changed from being strong,happy, and lively to being sad, strength less, and depressed. The speaker is a woman who seems upset and unhappy. The speaker views herself as altered and unrecognizable with a negative view of herself. "In what mirror did I lose my face?" The author uses a metaphor to show how it is as if she actually lost her face into a mirror. The poets choice of words like "cold","dead","sad", and "thin" all show the sadness and hurt that this woman is going through. The title, "portrait" gives a hint as to what this poem will be talking about . Portraits however are often times lively and not as depressing as this woman's "portrait." There is no rhyme in this poem however the stanzas define important pieces needed to understand and comprehend this piece of writing better. Each stanza talks about something new the speaker notices about herself in the mirror. The tone of this poetry is the opposite of upbeat,lively, and hopeful. This poems tone is sorrowful,blue and gloomy, which makes sense because the poem talks about a women not being able to recognize her pitiful face anymore. The theme of the poem is accepting change can bring happiness however change itself can bring discomfort and uneasy emotions.





Comments

  1. AnonymousFebruary 12, 2019 at 5:11 PM

    I agree that she is sad and displeased when she looks into the mirror. She could be talking about her physical appearance, but she could also be sad because she realizes her personality has changed. She may have changed herself for other people, and it wasn't until this moment that she figured it out. A realization like this could make someone feel basic and useless, which could very easily lead to sadness and depression. This is a very sad poem but unfortunately many would be able to relate to it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousFebruary 13, 2019 at 8:21 AM

    I like how you included that the poet writes about "themes included ephemeral time and the contemplative life". I also agree, this poem does show sadness and many more sad emotions. The poet also say "sad" so we know what she is feeling. The poem is about realizing changes that are happening with her feelings. The poet does not say the reason behind her changes but she does say she is not happy with it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AnonymousFebruary 13, 2019 at 8:27 PM

      I agree with the women not realizing that their changing and how they go from being strong and brave to drained, sa and gloomy. They lose themselves in betwwen the timeline of being happy to being sad. The author made this clear by using the words "sad","cold","dead",and "thin" which are not happy words and give us a clue that the poem is going to be sad and how it also backs up the nature of the poem. The tone in the poem as you read it is like the author is drained, and shocked at the same time, they dont realize they lost themselves until they look in another mirror.

      Delete
  3. AnonymousMarch 7, 2019 at 9:24 AM

    I agree that she feels as though this huge change in her emotions brings discomfort. The mirror is personified as something that stole her face; almost as if she herself that she remembered to be happy is reflected by how she is now. The mirror conjures the twist in happiness to depression. The now new reflection is filled with such and can only describe a reflective emotion now caused by future present events.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousMarch 21, 2019 at 11:12 AM

    I believe the change is the speakers looks brought her discomfort and sadness. The speaker is obviously very shocked and taken aback. I agree with your choice of the clock image which represents how time has changed her. The mirror brings the speaker back to the sad but true reality that beauty cannot last forever. I enjoyed your poetry choice and analysis.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Efiotu Jagun

Image
A Mother in a Refugee Camp No Madonna and Child could touch Her tenderness for a son She soon would have to forget. . . . The air was heavy with odors of diarrhea, Of unwashed children with washed-out ribs And dried-up bottoms waddling in labored steps Behind blown-empty bellies. Other mothers there Had long ceased to care, but not this one: She held a ghost-smile between her teeth, And in her eyes the memory Of a mother’s pride. . . .She had bathed him And rubbed him down with bare palms. She took from their bundle of possessions A broken comb and combed The rust-colored hair left on his skull And then—humming in her eyes—began carefully to part it. In their former life this was perhaps A little daily act of no consequence Before his breakfast and school; now she did it Like putting flowers on a tiny grave. http://www.universeofpoetry.org/nigeria_p2.shtml#english3 Biography Chinua Achebe was born in 1930 to a member of the Ogid
Read more

Henry Lilly

Image
Kim Van Kieu  What tragedies take place within each circling space of years! ‘Rich in good looks’ appears to mean poor luck and tears of woe; which may sound strange, I know, but is not really so, I swear, since Heaven everywhere seems jealous of the fair of face. The first 4 stanzas of this poem are representing the main character Kim Van Kieu, who was made out to be very beautiful except she had ''poor luck and tears of woe". Nguyen Du then explains this by saying that it was because heaven seemed jealous of her good looks. Nguyen Du wrote about morals and humanism and his own suffering which could explain his interest in this story of Kim Van Kieu. He got the story after translating it from Chinese to Vietnamese during one of his military delegation missions. In the poem Nguyen Du describes Heaven with personification by saying "Heaven everywhere seems jealous of the fair of face. Using jealous to describe heaven personifies heaven to highlight how beautiful
Read more

'Thoughts' by Alexander S. Pushkin Alexander Turner

Image
Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (1799-1837)  Александр Сергеевич Пушкин 'Thoughts' by Alexander Pushkin (1829) 'M ысли'*  от Александр Пушкин (1829) If I walk the noisy streets, O r enter a many thronged  church, Or sit among the wild young  generation, I give way to my thoughts I say to myself: the years are  fleeting, And however many there seem to  be, We must all go under the eternal v ault, And someone's hour is already at hand. When I look at the solitary oak I think: the patriarch of the woods. It will outlive my forgotten age As it outlived that of my grandfather's. If I caress a young child Immediately I think: farewell! I will yield my place to you, For I must fade while your flower blooms. Each day, every hour I habitually follow my thoughts, Trying to guess from their number The year which brings my death. And where will fate send death to me? In battle, in my travels, or on the seas? Or will the neighboring valley Rece
Read more