Mood and Tone in Linda Pastan’s Unveiling
Rosalynd Harris
AP Literature 2A
January 15, 2009
Unveiling
By Linda Pastan
In my opinion the Linda Pastan’s poem “Unveiling”, has a reflective mood and calming tone to it. In the first line of the poem Pastan immediately points out the fact that she is talking about a cemetery, eliminating an confusion for the later lines when she is referring to the new “resting place” of her family. You can immediately assume that she came from a close knit family after she refers to the cemetery being only a mile from where “we” used to live. “We” is referring to her aunts, uncles, mother, and father, who appear to have lived all together, In the same home.
They are all buried next to each other in two long rows. The Narrator then states this set up in which they are buried is similar to the way they used to sit around the dinner table. This shows the reflective portion of the poem. Where the narrator thinks back in time to when the were alive, and together
The narrator then goes into the fact that she feels a bit left out of the circle. The only one of them still alive, she feels that they are sharing a secret, similar to how adults hide things from children. But she understands, for the plain fact as to why they hid things from her as a child, they hide death from her now, because she, like then, is not ready for it “quite yet”. This poem reveal the sentiment of the narrator and embodies a reflective moment in her life, where sadness does not consume her heart over the death of her family, however, a patient waiting for the day she will be ready to understand the family
AP Literature 2A
January 15, 2009
Unveiling
By Linda Pastan
In my opinion the Linda Pastan’s poem “Unveiling”, has a reflective mood and calming tone to it. In the first line of the poem Pastan immediately points out the fact that she is talking about a cemetery, eliminating an confusion for the later lines when she is referring to the new “resting place” of her family. You can immediately assume that she came from a close knit family after she refers to the cemetery being only a mile from where “we” used to live. “We” is referring to her aunts, uncles, mother, and father, who appear to have lived all together, In the same home.
They are all buried next to each other in two long rows. The Narrator then states this set up in which they are buried is similar to the way they used to sit around the dinner table. This shows the reflective portion of the poem. Where the narrator thinks back in time to when the were alive, and together
The narrator then goes into the fact that she feels a bit left out of the circle. The only one of them still alive, she feels that they are sharing a secret, similar to how adults hide things from children. But she understands, for the plain fact as to why they hid things from her as a child, they hide death from her now, because she, like then, is not ready for it “quite yet”. This poem reveal the sentiment of the narrator and embodies a reflective moment in her life, where sadness does not consume her heart over the death of her family, however, a patient waiting for the day she will be ready to understand the family