AP English

Q1.) As the title tells us, this poem is written in a form called a sestina, first used by a French troubadour in the twelfth century. In describing the prosody of Alvarez’s poem, you will be describing a sestina. HINT: Instead of looking for a rhyme scheme, look for a pattern in the repetition of the last word of each line. The last three lines of the poem are called the envoy.

A1.) The prosody doesn’t really contain a specific meter. The author did however, use the same end words of each sentence in a stanza in every stanza except for the fifth stanza.

Q2.) In the first stanza, what is the effect of personification and allusion? What is the Spanish counterpart to each? Sum up the meaning of the stanza.

A2.) The effect of the personification and allusion in the first stanza is that it stereotypes the English. The Spanish counterpart to these is the author’s memories. The whole meaning of the stanza is that there are certain words that she can’t translate because it would be lost in translation and the effect or feelings of the words would be lost.

Q3.) What mood or feelings are evoked in stanza two? How does language create this mood?

A3.) The mood or feelings evoked in stanza two are those of remembrance or reflecting on the past and of relaxation. The language creates this mood because her imagery of “…warm island waters as I say your soothing names…”.

Q4.) What do we learn in stanzas two and three about the difference between names and vocabulary words? How does the example of the plant called the morivivir help illustrate this gap? What does the metaphor of the genii in the bottle tell us about the nature of language?

A4.) In stanzas two and three we learn that the difference between names and vocabulary words is that a translated name won’t give the same feeling because the translated word loses it’s significance or the memory that it invokes and then the word becomes like any other word the person is trying to learn. The example of the plant called the morivivir helps illustrate this gap because the plant closes when it is touched. Like the plant, the Spanish and English language “closed” to interpretation. The metaphor of the genii in the bottle tells us about the nature of language because the author is saying that saying the word in either language doesn’t always open your mind to a memory or a feeling.

Q5.) In stanzas four and five, why does the speaker invoke Gladys and Rosario from her childhood? How is her childhood sensitivity to words inextricably bound to Spanish, her first language? What is significant about the allusion to Adam, the first man?

A5.) In stanzas four and five, the speaker invokes Gladys and Rosario from her childhood because she’s trying to remember her life when she didn’t know English and how her connection to her Spanish words was strong. Her childhood sensitivity to words is inextricably bound to Spanish, because the names she had for her world are what she bases any words she learns in a different language to. The significance about the allusion to Adam is that she is pointing out that even though she was not the first to give the names to the things in her world, she still felt important because she felt like she was naming the things for the first time.