Linda Pastan is an American poet of Jewish background. She was born and raised in the Bronx, and during her childhood she was “saturated with the domestic details and cultural expectations of Old World Jewry,” (eNotes). She is known for writing short poems that address topics like family life, motherhood, female experience, aging, and death. Paul Martinez was born and raised in suburban Chicago. There isn't much information regarding his childhood. He is known for writing short poems that address topics of race, language, consumerism, cultural identity, and masculinity. These two amazing poets have a different background, but share light into the same topics, each from their own perspective.
Linda Pastan’s poem, “To a Daughter Leaving Home,” …show more content…
(Pastan, 1-10)
This poem’s deeper meaning is about the life of the daughter and how quickly the daughter’s life went by until they say goodbye. This poem is addressed to “a Daughter Leaving Home,” and the poem is written to make the daughters that are leaving their homes, reflect upon their own lives and how they have gone through it.
Paul Martinez’s poem, “The Abuelita Poem,” is just as emotional as Pastan’s poem, but may be more sentimental to Hispanic readers than other ethnicities. In the first section in Martinez’s poem, he talks about how he remembers his grandmother before she passed. Martinez wrote, “Her brown skin glistens as the sun/ pours through the kitchen window/ like gold leche” (1-3). You can sense the feeling of how much he loves and envies his grandmother when he writes, “And I know she must do this/ with care…” (11-12). In the second section, he talks about his grandmother dying and a memory he had shared of her. “I cannot remember/ if she made corn tortillas from scratch/ but, O, how she’d flip the factory fresh/ El Milagros (Quality Since 1950)/ on the burner, bathe them in butter/ & salt for her grandchildren” (19-24). Emotion comes with the use of imagery and that’s exactly what we get with Pastan’s and Martinez’s …show more content…
This example of imagery shows us that the daughter is not in full control of the bike and in a way, she’s not in control of her life. As she goes on riding, the parent is surprised to see that the daughter has gone down a “curved/ path of the park” (9-10). Pastan uses the words “curved path,” as a symbol to represent life; and life certainly doesn’t go in a “straight line.” “I kept waiting/ for a thud/ of your crash” (11-13). The choice of words she uses makes me assume that the parent is worried and panicked about the daughter getting hurt, which as we all know the first time we ride a bicycle, getting hurt is highly likely. “While you grew/ smaller, more breakable/ with distance,” (15-18). This quotation is explaining how the daughter in the parent’s eyes, is fragile. Also, the daughter is not in reach, but the daughter continues to go independently on her bicycle, “pumping, pumping/ for ‘her’ life” (18- 19). She goes on with her life “screaming/ with laughter” (19-20). This makes the parents feel as if they are the only one that realizes that the daughter is in danger, because the daughter is on a bicycle that she has barely learned to ride. The deeper meaning in that is, as she got older she was going through life independently, a life the parent thought she was risking, but to the daughter it was only a joy. The daughter goes on without the parent.
Linda Pastan’s poem, “To a Daughter Leaving Home,” …show more content…
(Pastan, 1-10)
This poem’s deeper meaning is about the life of the daughter and how quickly the daughter’s life went by until they say goodbye. This poem is addressed to “a Daughter Leaving Home,” and the poem is written to make the daughters that are leaving their homes, reflect upon their own lives and how they have gone through it.
Paul Martinez’s poem, “The Abuelita Poem,” is just as emotional as Pastan’s poem, but may be more sentimental to Hispanic readers than other ethnicities. In the first section in Martinez’s poem, he talks about how he remembers his grandmother before she passed. Martinez wrote, “Her brown skin glistens as the sun/ pours through the kitchen window/ like gold leche” (1-3). You can sense the feeling of how much he loves and envies his grandmother when he writes, “And I know she must do this/ with care…” (11-12). In the second section, he talks about his grandmother dying and a memory he had shared of her. “I cannot remember/ if she made corn tortillas from scratch/ but, O, how she’d flip the factory fresh/ El Milagros (Quality Since 1950)/ on the burner, bathe them in butter/ & salt for her grandchildren” (19-24). Emotion comes with the use of imagery and that’s exactly what we get with Pastan’s and Martinez’s …show more content…
This example of imagery shows us that the daughter is not in full control of the bike and in a way, she’s not in control of her life. As she goes on riding, the parent is surprised to see that the daughter has gone down a “curved/ path of the park” (9-10). Pastan uses the words “curved path,” as a symbol to represent life; and life certainly doesn’t go in a “straight line.” “I kept waiting/ for a thud/ of your crash” (11-13). The choice of words she uses makes me assume that the parent is worried and panicked about the daughter getting hurt, which as we all know the first time we ride a bicycle, getting hurt is highly likely. “While you grew/ smaller, more breakable/ with distance,” (15-18). This quotation is explaining how the daughter in the parent’s eyes, is fragile. Also, the daughter is not in reach, but the daughter continues to go independently on her bicycle, “pumping, pumping/ for ‘her’ life” (18- 19). She goes on with her life “screaming/ with laughter” (19-20). This makes the parents feel as if they are the only one that realizes that the daughter is in danger, because the daughter is on a bicycle that she has barely learned to ride. The deeper meaning in that is, as she got older she was going through life independently, a life the parent thought she was risking, but to the daughter it was only a joy. The daughter goes on without the parent.