Uncoiling By Pat Mora Analysis

The poem Uncoiling by Pat Mora is a piece that uses interesting techniques and literary devices to write what seems like a story about a woman, but what is actually the journey of a tornado. The poem starts with her awakening, and gathering animals and lighting in her hair, and moves onto her scaring the rocks and rivers. The woman then creates wind and thunder, and scares people into their houses. The story then speaks about the fearful people singing to their children, and the carnage that the woman is raging outside. It ends with the woman swirling herself to sleep, with scars forming across her legs from debris. Mora uses literary devices and writing techniques to create two stories: one of a woman, fleeing from a tornado, and the other of the tornado woman. By …show more content…
In line 2, Mora speaks about the woman tossing her hair in the rain, and continues into lines 3 and 4 by speaking about how she traps lighting, plants, and animals in it. By describing the woman this way initially using imagery, it first creates the idea that there are two stories occuring. You can see the story of the woman trapped out in the rain, but you also notice the story of the powerful tornado beginning her terror. In lines 5-9, Mora describes how the typically powerful things in nature, boulders and rivers, hide from the stormy woman. By using specific words choices in these lines, Mora is able to fully convey the terror that is present in these beings. The rivers “leaping” to safety, and how the boulders “retreat like crabs.” By using powerful imagery and a simile, you are able to realize to destruction the stormy woman is capable of. In line 10, Mora begins to discuss the storm breathing out wind and thunder by using the literary device of personification, and also how the people are running away from the gusts that she is creating. By line 13, you are able to fully comprehend that two stories, one of the beautiful women and the other of the tornado, are