Top-Rated Free Essay
Preview

Century Quilt Poem Analysis

Good Essays
571 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Century Quilt Poem Analysis
Madison Martin

Wilson 6th period

English 3-AP

10 September 2013

Martin 2

The Century Quilt Analysis

Waniek's "The Century Quilt" not only illustrates the importance that her Meema's quilt had in her life but also represents her family, specifically her grandmother. Through many literary devices such as vivid imagery, symbolism, and structure, the author is able to create not only a reminiscent tone, but also depict how Waniek is hopeful for the future.

The poem's structure is a vital part when creating the complex meanings of the quilt. In the first Stanza, the writer's nostalgic tone brings forth the significance her grandmother's blanket had on her. Waniek writes that she fell "in love with Meema's Indian blanket," (1-2). With these lines, Waniek depicts how she discovered the significance a quilt could have on her life. "Now I have found a quilt" (13) Waniek writes in her second stanza. This line is necessary to create the present tense Waniek needs in order to be optimistic about the future. In the third stanza, Waniek is not only reminiscent but also wishful that her experience with her new quilt will shadow her grandmother's.

Symbolism is a major technique that the author uses to get the meaning of the quilt across to the reader. In every stanza, Waniek likens the quilt to her family in order to describe how much the quilt reminded her of them. To her, her grandmother's quilt reminded her of her childhood. She describes how she remembered "play[ing] in its folds and be chieftains and princesses" (11-12). She uses these lines to demonstrate how the quilt represented her youthful and energetic days with her sister. In the second stanza she compares one of her new quilt's squares to "the yellowbrown of mama's cheeks" (17) to illustrate how the quilt symbolizes the racial diversity of her family. In the third stanza Waniek expects to have "good dreams for a hundred years under the quilt" (21-23) as her grandmother must have had under her quilt. This stanza again alludes back to her grandmother and the dreams she must have had under her quilt. Waniek considers the things she may dream of when she wrote "perhaps I'd meet my son or other child, as yet unconceived" (42-43). These lines are again alluding to her family specifically to her sons. Her quilt symbolizes every member of her family but specifically her grandmother who introduced her to the love one could have for a quilt.

Waniek uses vivid color imagery in her poem. In the first stanza Waniek writes that she "fell asleep under army green" (2-3) a relatively dull color. Then her grandmother came to live with her and brought a lively and colorful quilt that Waniek "planned to inherit" (9). In the second stanza Waniek writes that in her new quilt "each square holds a sweet gum leaf whose fingers [she] imagined would caress [her] into silence" (18-20). This paints a vivid image of her new quilt gently putting her asleep while also personifying the quilt. Waniek writes of her father's "burnt umber pride" (39) and her mother's "ochre gentleness". These lines paint a vivid picture of the loving qualities that her parents possess.

Marilyn Nelson Waniek is extremely symbolic when describing her quilt and comparing it to her family. Through vibrant imagery and a careful structure Waniek is able to create a reminiscent yet hopeful tone which abetted the writer in creating the complex meaning that Waniek attributes to "The Century Quilt".

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The Lottery

    • 670 Words
    • 3 Pages

    2. How does the contrast between the two sisters' appearances, personalities, lifestyles, and feelings about the quilts help to convey the story's theme?…

    • 670 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Family, for some has always been the glue that holds people together, whether liked or not, like branches on a tree, spreading its leaves for what seems like miles. In "The Century Quilt" by Marilyn Nelson Waniek, the speaker creates a simile of her grandmother's blanket and her quilt, beginning with explaining the memorable colors and thoughts about her grandmother's blanket and continuing with her quilt. In "The Century Quilt", Waniek gives the poem complex meaning through literary techniques such as diction to add complexity and to give insight to the meaning, imagery to show the connection of the speaker's family, and symbolism to show the similarities of the speakers quilt and her grandmother's blanket.…

    • 514 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    AP Lit Q1 Final

    • 788 Words
    • 4 Pages

    This particular poem doesn’t follow any specific rhyme scheme or any tight outline in general. So it comes off as more narrative because it truly feels like the author is speaking from her heart as she talks about the quilt, she’s telling her story. However, with the way each line is broken off, the reader has something to think about after reading each set of lines. Such as “I think I’d have good dreams/for a hundred years under this quilt” (21-22) is a very clear implication of how safe this quilt makes her feel when she’s using it. There’s just a feeling of warmth attached to it that she simply can’t find in any other item she owns. In the beginning of the piece when she talks about the century quilt, she sounds as if she’s more excited about Meema’s visit because she’s aware she’ll bring the quilt along with her. Then in the next line she mentions falling asleep underneath an army green blanket that was issued to her father by Supply. When talking about her dad’s army blanket, she simply states what the color of the blanket is but nothing else. The century quilt however, the author knows everything about it from what every inch of the detailing looks like, to all the experiences she’s had with it that have ended up being some of her most favorite memories now. Although it’s an inanimate object, the author’s excitement when she talks about the century quilt is almost tangible.…

    • 788 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The poem “My Mother Pieced Quilts” by Teresa Paloma Acosto was a literary work that showed that peoples culture always effects the way a person looks at the world and others. The quote “Sewn hard and taut to withstand the thrashings of twenty-five years stretched out they lay armed ready shouting…

    • 1016 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    She thinks to herself, “I didn’t want to bring up how I has offered Dee (Wangero) a quilt when she went away to college. Then she had told me they were old-fashioned, out of style”(320). The mother is in disbelief at Dee, who only wants to use her heritage as something for show and tell. Those same blankets she had once refused she now wanted because they fit her own aesthetic, and not at all for the value and meaning behind those quilts. The mother then decides to do something unheard of and, “hugged Maggie to me, then dragged her on into the room, snactched the quilts out of Miss Wangero’s hands and dumped them into Maggie’s lap”(321). The mom has chosen her true heritage over the false, glamorized one that her eldest daughter has decided to create. She gives the quilts to Maggie because in her heart she knows that Miss Wangero does not deserve them, that Maggie can truly appreciate them and know who she is and where she’s come…

    • 695 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The quilts are pieces of living history, documents in fabric that chronicle the lives of the various generations and the trials that they faced. “These are all pieces of dresses Grandma used to wear.” (Walker 9) “Some of the pieces, like the lavender ones, come from old clothes her mother handed down to her,” (Walker 9) The quilts serve as a testament to a family’s history of pride and struggle. With the limitations that poverty and lack of education placed on her life, Mama considers her personal history one of her few treasures. She mentions that "After second grade the school was closed down." (Walker 3) and because of this she is not educated and cannot…

    • 429 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Through the descriptive use of colors, Waniek creates a vivid picture of the quilt: “Six Van Dyke brown, squares, two white, and one square yellow of Meema’s cheek” (lines 15-17). The colors “brown, white, and yellow brown” not only describes the appearance of the quilt but also have a deeper meaning. The colors describe the color of her ancestor’s skin, not just the actual quilt. These repeating patterns of squares most likely pay homage to the speaker’s mixed heritage, with her family being of both Native American and Caucasian descent. The speaker’s heritage is supported by her visions of her grandmother’s childhood back in Kentucky “among her yellow sisters; their grandfather’s white family” (Lines 25-26). While one could argue that the speaker is simply reciting the life of her grandmother, it can also be said that the speaker is optimistic about her own future, and that she herself would relive her memories whilst under the quilt, such as meeting her unconceived son. The speaker’s desire to share the same emotional response to her quilt as her grandmother to her…

    • 446 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    meanings attributed by the speaker to the quilt. The prompt mentioned structure, imagery and tone as…

    • 462 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The poem has amazing imagery setting, which creates the vivid nostalgic atmosphere. Adame begins his story with the image of his grandma rocking quietly in her armchair, maybe for hours, for he stated until her swelled hands/calmed. This is a common scene of elderliness, when people enjoy the calm and slow movement of time, silently rocking on the armchair watching the day passing by. She appears to be a typical grandma, who would feel cold in a hot summer day to wear thick socks and big sweaters. In the writers memory his grandma was really old and weak. She is also a person who would be glad to save any penny, as she laughs greedily going to Payless to buy cheap shoes. Even knowing Payless always sells cheap products, she would still wait until the check comes. This could be an embarrassing memory for a kid to be with his grandma, who goes excessively happy to save a few cents. However Adames flashback is immediately followed by the recall of his grandmothers warm and kind hearted actions. Every morning, when it is still early at dawn sunlight barely lit/the kitchen, his grandma would wake up before everybody else in the family, and prepare breakfast. The sound and smell of potatoes in frying saucepan would always wake him up, as a warm nurturous feeling to start the day. And although she makes nice hot meal for her children, she herself cannot enjoy it. She has lost her teeth, and can only eat bread soaked in coffee. As a kid perhaps he did not understand the feeling of that daily routine, but as he grows up and looks back to the past, it has a heartbreaking emotion. Adame realizes how hard it was for his grandmother. He also remembers how loving and caring she was to him.…

    • 611 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    compare and contrast

    • 308 Words
    • 2 Pages

    irony- the different reasons for why the two sisters want the quilts. Like " Who will light the incense when mothers gone" its about tradition and caring on things passed down from generation.…

    • 308 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    It illustrates the power of the quilt to connect the speaker to other lives in her family. As previously noted, the yellow, white, and brown shades on the quilt resembles the colors of the skin tones of her family. Therefore, the quilt is an active representation of the people in her family that the speaker identifies with and is a part of. The gestures of “caressing” by the imaginary fingers of the colors of the quilt represent the intimacy and trust that the blanket evokes. It suggests that the speaker’s heritage is deeply close to her. This gentle motion of stroking that the speaker hopes will ease her transition into death “into the silence,” along with the wish that she would like to die under the quilt may symbolize the intentions of living for and taking the values of her culture and history with her in…

    • 961 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Humanities English Leela Crosby Period 8 February 18, 2017 Vocabulary and Homework Study Questions Book 8 Vocabulary: zenith (n): the time at which something is most powerful or successful rancor (n): bitterness or resentfulness, especially when long-standing 1. What command did Zeus give the gods and goddesses? Zeus commanded the gods and goddesses to remain in Olympus so they wouldn’t be able to come to the Greeks’ nor the Trojans’ aid in battle. 2. Who led the Trojans in driving the Greeks back to their…

    • 847 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    To This Day Poem Analysis

    • 1903 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Hello I’m Maddi Beeson as many of you know and I wanted to talk to you about a very important issue at our school. There is the problem of bullying and I would like to say something about it which will hopefully change things. Starting off with this poem I had found on the internet which is a very inspiring poem about bullying. It is called: To This Day- for the bullied and the beautiful by Shane Koyczan.…

    • 1903 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    KUMAUN UNIVERSITY NAINITAL ANNUAL EXAMINATION SCHEME 2013 Programme of M. A. (Previous) & M.A. (Final) |Day & Date |SUBJECT |PAPER / TIME | | | |11 AM- 2 PM | |Thursday, 18.4.13 |1. English (Previous) |Paper I | | |Non-fiction Prose | | | |2. Political Science (Previous ) |Paper I | | |Political Thought | | |Saturday, 20.4.13 |1.…

    • 986 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    M.B.a First Year Papers

    • 569 Words
    • 3 Pages

    No one ever regarded the first of January with indifference. It is that from which all…

    • 569 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays