This Is Love by Karlo Mila

This Is Love By Karlo Mila (for David) 1) MAIN IDEA: That real love is like gardening and looking after a plant to help it grow. Love needs to be you’ve taken / the roots of / my thoughts on / what love is / maintained and cared for in order to survive and this understanding I’ve created over the years / flourish. so ripe / so red / in your big hands / brown / custodial Eg: ‘seeds sown in the hopeful spring’ you put them in a pot / large bucket / on your front ‘ love is / the watering / the watching.’ doorstep / a place in the Papatoetoe sun / this is love you say / watering / tending / a careful eye at the end of the day 2) TONE: Positive, loving, thankful/grateful, reflective, it is seeds sown in the hopeful spring / hiccups of hope / She is telling David the ways in which he scattered sheets / seed spread bed / it is shedding dead leaves has helped her to learn how to love, how to see love in autumn / and you prune / me / cutting fingertips in a different way. tenderly / bleeding softly into soil / blistering gently / the Eg: ‘you’ve taken / the roots of / my thoughts on / test is you say / whether we will survive winter / there will be many winters / soaked with rain / frost on car what love is /’ window mornings ‘this is what I have learned.’ this is love you say / endurance through / every / every day / 3) KEY IMAGERY: What love is: Love as a seed that season grows in the springtime into a plant. this is what I have learned. Eg: ‘It is seeds sown in the hopeful spring’ ‘on your front doorstep / a place in the love is not a bunch of red roses / blossomed into the peak Papatoetoe sun / of their beauty / cut at the height of their passion / long stemmed /bikini lined / full lipped / red perfect What love isn’t: Not your stereotypical symbols of love, Eg ‘not a bunch of red roses / blossomed into love is / the watering / the watching / the pruning / the the peak of their beauty / cut at the height of their tending / the providing of new buckets / the finding of passion.’ new doorsteps / ‘ not something one simply wears behind their love is not something one simply wears ears in full bloom’. behind their ears in full bloom Purpose: To help explain what love looks like and what it doesn’t look like to Karlo Mila now that she has been shown differently. 4) STRUCTURE Effect: We see images in our minds of seeds growing Use of broken lines to make the reader pause and and a house in Papatoetoe, pictures we may be able Think hard about each phrase. To the poet, it is to relate to. Most people would also know what red Important that the reader digests this message roses on Valentine’s Day look like. These images properly. force the reader see love as something that grows Eg: ‘and you prune / me / cutting fingertips’ with hard work, not something that you can buy that’s ‘ You’ve taken / the roots of / my thoughts on’ instantly beautiful.

Broken into two parts- the first half of the poem discusses what love is. - the second half discusses what love is not. 1) MAIN IDEA: Love is not always about hearts and roses, it can be 5) LANGUAGE FEATURES described/shown in other forms. She is uses an original symbol of an Extended metaphor: Of love like the careonion and to attentionhelp represent one gives love to the a plantway she to help sees it it.grow. This is more suitable ‘love is / The wateringto her/ the than watching stereotypical / the pruning’ symbols of love like roses and cards. ( see other specialist sheet for an extended Eg ‘versionNot a red of rosethis.) or a satin heart.’ I give you an onion. 6) AUTHORS BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: It’sKarlo fierce Mila kiss is a will NZ stay poet on of your Tongan, lips.’ Samoan and European descent. Her poetry tends to be about themes to do with her cultural heritage, politics and love. Poetry that ‘speaks to2)TONE: the soul’. Positive, Her book truthful, ‘Dream honest. Fish Floating’ In some whichparts hurtful-was but that just a collection of poems won ‘Best First Bookhelps of to Poetry’ enhance in 2006.the idea of an onion representing realistic love. Real love causes us to feel hurt sometimes. ‘I am trying to be truthful’ ‘ It promises light’ ‘It’s scent will cling to your fingers, Cling to your knife.’

3)IMAGERY: The onion like a moon – controls the tides and a woman’s cycle. It is also a light- may symbolise enlightenment, goodness, hope. Valentine Eg ‘ It is a moon wrapped in brown paper. It promises light’ The peeling of an onion- ‘undressing’ it, peeling back the layers is like looking beneath the surface to truly know someone. ‘ the careful undressing of love’ ( There are lots more – eg, the wedding ring, the reflection) by Carol Ann Duffy

Not a red rose or a satin heart.

I give you an onion. It is a moon wrapped in brown paper. It promises light like the careful undressing of love.

Here. It will blind you with tears like a lover. It will make your reflection a wobbling photo of grief.

I am trying to be truthful.

Not a cute card or a kissogram.

I give you an onion. Its fierce kiss will stay on your lips, possessive and faithful as we are, for as long as we are.

Take it. Its platinum loops shrink to a wedding-ring, if you like.

Lethal. Its scent will cling to your fingers, cling to your knife.

4) STRUCTURE: a series of observations/images linked by their common theme of love being like and onion. Not written in sentence forms throughout - she uses disjointed phrases or even a single word. (minor sentences.) Eg ‘Here.’ ‘ Take it.’ ‘ Lethal.’

Some stanzas are a single line long. ‘ I am trying to be truthful.’

The effect of this is it causes the reader to digest the words and their meanings slowly. We are forced to think about words more carefully as they stand alone.

5)LANGUAGE FEATURES: Extended Metaphor: Love as an onion. Not only is she giving her lover an onion as a Valentines Day present, she is also describing how the onion is love. ‘ It’s platinum loops shrink to a wedding-ring’ ‘ It’s scent will cling to your fingers.’ Simile: ‘It will blind you with tears like a lover’ Personification: ‘ It’s fierce kiss will stay on you lips, Possessive and faithful’ Use of pronouns: ‘I give you an onion.’ : Helps the reader to understand that this is between two people. Universal because it does not state gender or age.

Violent connotations: ‘Lethal’ ‘Cling to your knife’. 6) POETS BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: She was asked to write a poem by a Radio station producer for Valentine’s Day. As an artist, Duffy felt the need to provide an original symbol to represent love for this occasion. She is of Scottish descent and teaches Creative Writing. Duffy chooses not to ‘invent’ new interesting words in her poetry instead she says ‘ I like to use simple words but in a complicated way.” We can see this in ‘Valentine’ which really uses very simple vocabulary to evoke quite complex images and themes. The Lifeless Wife 1) MAIN IDEA: A critique of the empty life that some housewives By Margaret Atwood. live with their controlling husbands. There is no love involved. She no longer thinks for herself. He controls her emotions with money. The lifeless wife Eg) ‘stuff her heart with money’ Kisses with pursed lips ‘ the lifeless wife’ Her grim husband (thin Only one person gets to be happy in this relationship. Shi is almost Pinstriped businessman); used like a prostitute (trophy wife) She is his safe Deposit box and bank 2)TONE: The poem is scathing, angry, disgusted. It is criticising The nickelodeon this kind of relationship. ‘her grim husband’ That plays his favourite tune ‘the nickelodeon That plays his favourite tune’ There are very little positive words and when there are they are She was just an ordinary used in sarcasm. ‘in pure domestic bliss’ Woman: all he had to do This line then is strongly contrasted with the next line… To make her fully his ‘Was just break through In pure domestic bliss Her backbone,’ Atwood uses violent imagery to assist the angry tone in which she Was just break through writes this poem. Her backbone, empty out her head Sympathy is also there for the wife ‘She was just an ordinary Stuff her heart with money woman’ And bury her in bed. 3) IMAGERY: We are presented with many descriptions of the wife as a dead human or a non-living inanimate object. - A carcass being stuffed with money and having it’s brain scooped 4)STRUCTURE: out. ‘empty out her head 3 stanzas Stuff her heart with money’ 1st stanza – describes her / how - A cold hard empty box. ‘She is his safe she is treated by husband Deposit box and bank’ 2nd stanza – she is ordinary - a plastic, musical toy that always says what he wants to hear. 3rd stanza – violent imagery – ‘The nickelodeon that plays his favourite tune’ how she is treated PURPOSE: To make the wife seem dead, lifeless. EFFECT: As women, it makes us angry to think about a woman being treated in this way. It makes us think about marriage and 5) LANGUAGE FEATURES: equality in relationships between man and woman. It also makes Metaphor – “stuff her heart with us think about how society views relationships. From the outside money”. looking in, the marriage in ‘The Lifeless Wife’ may seem normal to Has associations of her being killed and her body stuffed. Very graphic. Metaphor – “safe deposit box” – she is lifeless,MAIN cold, IDEA: empty, A woman an object choosing owned to by leave her her partner after a failed husband. Relates to title and suggests how sherelationship. feels (empty She inside).is refusing to stay in the ‘fairytale’ relationship Alliteration – “break ..backbone…bury her inthat bed” he believed it to be. The fact that she is comparing it to a Effect – forceful ‘b’ sounds. This is effective fairytaleas it sounds strengthens like punches the idea / blows. that the love wasn’t real. It wasn’t a happy relationship and she refused to ‘play along’ ‘For a while I thought we were living the fairy tale’ 6)POETS BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: ‘I’d rejected the role of princess in your production.’

Margaret Atwood is an established CanadianTONE: writer. Disappointment She has written aand number disillusionment of award- (“I thought we winning novels, as well as poetry which oftenwere deal livingwith sexual the fairytale”) politics (relationships between men and women in society) as well as other contemporaryAnger and confusion issues. Her (I am work Rapunzel could broadly with her be dreadlocks shorn) described as Feminist. Another famous workTriumph of hers is and ‘The pride Handmaid’s (“I transformed Tale’ which myself into the beautiful describes a dystopian society where fertile womandragon.”) are controlled like slaves in society.

She wants us to see how women can so easilyIMAGERY: be dominated I worked by their my husbandsown midnight in a magic for all it was patriarchal society.(a society that is controlledworth by men.) / red So blood many , whitegirls dream cloth, of mirrors growing on up the wall” and marrying ‘Mr Right’, with lots of money andBy respectusing active in society. verbs Atwood (“I worked..) is showing she emphasises us that that she tried money and power does not always equate withhard happiness. to make the There relationship is no love work for thebut lifelessto no avail. wife. The image of the mirror suggests she had to find her own self worth. The imagery of “Red blood, white cloth” suggests violence / death (her pain? Sacrifice?) – such as in stories like Snow White Leaving Prince Charming Behind where the evil queen tries to kill Snow White. This shows the lengths that she will go to, to get out of this relationship. “Midnight magic” – refers to Cinderella where the magic transformation ends at midnight. This imagery is also linked to the line “the poison apple was lodged firmly in my throat”- which shows she was metaphorically ‘choking’ in the relationship. Karlo Mila

For a while I thought we were living the fairy tale but sadly I realised that this was the myth and you were so busy believing that we were living the happily ever after I don’t think you noticed for a while I’d rejected the role of princess in your production. I am Rapunzel with her dreadlocks shorn trying to pull down the tower with broken nails cursing your name. I believed you the architect of my isolation and it didn’t matter what you tried to do the poison apple was lodged firmly in my throat and not believing in glass slipper redemption I worked my own midnight magic for all it was worth red blood, white cloth mirrors on the wall. My poor dark prince on your gallant white horse the shoe didn’t fit your kiss couldn’t wake me up to your way of thinking. I transformed myself into a beautiful dragon you felt honour bound to slay.

LANGUAGE FEATURES:

Fairytale Allusion – “I am Rapunzel with her dreadlocks shorn” , “glass slipper didn’t fit” “the poison apple lodged in my throat” – she turns upside down the usual fairy tale to make her point. Metaphor – “you, the architect of my isolation” – She blames her ex lover for ‘designing’ her suffering and loneliness, linking him to fairytales of princesses trapped in castles by cruel fathers or husbands. Use of a pause (gap) between “this was _____ the myth” – emphasises the gap between her hopes (that they were living a ‘fairytale’) and the reality (it was a myth – i.e. just an illusion.)

STRUCTURE:

5 stanzas Shows progression from her early understanding of the relationship as a ‘fairytale’ through to her ‘transforming herself into a dragon. Each stanza draws on different stories – Rapunzel, Cinderella and Snow White, Sleeping Beauty.

POET’S PURPOSE/BACKGROUND: Karlo Mila is a NZ poet of Tongan, Samoan and European descent. Her poetry tends to be about themes to do with her cultural heritage, politics and love. Poetry that ‘speaks to the soul’. Her book ‘Dream Fish Floating’ which was a collection of poems won ‘Best First Book of Poetry’ in 2006.