Literary Devices Used In Waniek's 'The Century Quilt'

In her poem, The Century Quilt, Waniek refers to literary devices such as imagery. Structure, and symbolism. Through her use of these literary devices a reader is able to learn about the century quilt and the value that it holds in the speaker’s life. The most notable literary device used by Waniek is the structure in which she uses to create her poem. The poem seems to be structured chronologically from past to present, and this can be seen as the speaker speaks out about her days as a youngster. As the poem progresses the speaker says, “Now I’ve found a quilt.” which signifies the speaker is older and speaking in the present. The structure of the poem, however, is not all that it seems and it is also structured from present to past. As can be seen by the way the speaker speaks of herself in the present but soon goes on to talking about her family and their past. Her family’s past can be read through the dreams that her grandmother, Meema, has of her childhood and her daughter’s, who is the speaker’s mother, childhood. …show more content…
The way she describes the quilt, “Six Van Dyke brown squares, two white ones, and one square the yellow-brown of Mama’s cheeks,” helps readers to visualize the quilt, while also visualizing what the speaker’s mother’s complexion may have looked like. Waniek also makes use of imagery to help readers visualize the speaker’s family, through Meema’s dreams. Upon reading about Meema’s dreams, with lines such as “When their father came home from his store they cranked up the pianola and all the beautiful sisters giggled and danced.” One can actually see all that had happened on such a day in Meema’s