Hello Readers!
welcome to my blog. This is my B.A studies blog in which i have wrote about the poem of "my Grandmother", written by Elizabeth Jennings.
Elizabeth Jennings :
Elizabeth Jennings, in full Elizabeth Joan Jennings, (born July 18, 1926, Boston, Lincolnshire, England—died October 26, 2001, Brampton, Oxford shire), English poet whose works relate intensely personal matters in a plainspoken, traditional, and objective style and whose verse frequently reflects her devout Roman Catholicism and her love of Italy.
"My Grandmother"
My Grandmother is a poem written by Elizabeth Jennings. Let's we look the overall analysis of the poem.
My Grandmother is a poem written by Elizabeth Jennings. Let's we look the overall analysis of the poem.
It explore the relationship between the personae and her grandmother. It focus on the remorse and guilt she felt after her grandmother passed away.
Theme of the Poem
The poet explores her own feeling of inadequacy inadequacy in dealing with her grandmother. In a broader sense, the poet seems to explore the difficulties in relationships and with people's feelings as opposed to the inanimate objects her grandmother collected around herself.
Language of the Poem
The language used appears simple and straightforward, using ordinary words and phrases. This conceals the complexity of the feelings it explores. The image of dust is used in the final stanza and carries connotation of death. The language is descriptive,e.g.'faded silks', 'brass salvers', 'silver bowls'.
Structure of the Poem
This poem divided into four stanzas, each of which develops the idea further :
Stanza 1 : Describe her grandmother
Stanza 2 : describe the incident which causes her guilt
Stanza 3 : shows her grandmother in retirement
Stanza four : after her grandmother has died, the poet reflects on her grandmother's life and her own memories.
This poem written in one long stanza, in lines of iambic pentameter. Rhyme scheme of the poem is ABABCC. Although it is a first person narrative, this is also partly an elegy in that it remembers a dead person.
Overall Synopsis
First Stanza
The first stanza begins by saying that Elizabeth's Grandmother owned an antique shop, which she cherished more than anything or anyone. She kept lots of them that they became to dictate your life. She has a great relationship and a passion with her possessions. This can be found in line 1.
"She kept an antique shop-or kept her.
Among Apostle spoons and Bristol glass,
The faded silks, her heavy furniture"
In the antique shop there was heavy furniture, which had been faded over the years. There was a good atmosphere in the shop. She polished the object and antiques very well. It was a well-run shop. When she looks in the brass she see her own reflection she has better relationship with the shop than any of her family, or friends. This can be found in line 4.
"She watched her own reflection in the brass
Slaver and silver bowls, as if to prove,
Polish was all, there was no need for love".
Second Stanza
In this second stanza, Elizabeth is describing a particular incident that happened in her childhood.This can be found in line 7.
"And I remember how once refused
To go out with her since! was afraid.
It was perhaps a wish not to be used
like a antique objects...."
Her grandmother asked her granddaughter if she would go out with her but she refused and thought her grandmother would own her but not love her. She felt abstinent, and felt she should have gone with her, but also had to say what she felt. She did not want to go with her, so she said 'no' , line 10.
"Though she never said
That was hurt, I still could feel the guilt.
of that refusal, guessing how she felt".
She was starting to fell guilty about refusing to go out with her grandmother. Elizabeth did not know what her grandmother was thinking or feeling when she refused to go out, but she guessed she was not happy. Even though her grandmother said nothing she still felt guilty about what she had said.
Stanza Three :
The third stanza is when her grandmother gets more frail, and is not able to keep the antique shop running. The third stanza is what the grandmother does in retirement. She has a sense of loneliness because she spends more time with her shop than with people who care about her. She replaces her family with her hobby and her passion for the antique shop when she excessively polishes she is trying to escape from reality. This can be found in line 13.
"Later, too frail to keep a shop, she put
All her best things in one long, narrow room."
In the next four lines of stanza three we can see that the place she had gone to smelt old, and the smell of absence where the shadows come that could not be polished. This meant that she had gone to a place where she could not clean.
In stanza three the grandmother has died. When it says that the 'shadows come' it means that death has arrived and has come for the grandmother. She would not be able to use polish to make her reflection return or return her life back out of reality and into her dream world.
Sthanza 4
In the fourth and final stanza the grandmother has died and nobody is looking after her antique shop. The echoes of another have surrounding the shop, because it has lots its life, just like her grandmother, this can be found in line 19 to the end of the poem;
"And when she dies, felt no grief at all
only the guilt of what I once refused.
I walked into her room among the tall
sideboards and cupboards-things she never used
But needed: and no finger-marks were there
only the new dust falling through the air."
In these lines of stanza four we can see that Elizabeth Jennings felt no grief of her grandmother , but she still felt the guilt about her refusal in stanza two. She may not have felt any grief when she dies because she was not that close and had no thing to do with her. Most people expect to feel grief when a family member, friend or pet dies but some people feel more grief for a friend or pet than a distant or closer family member.
She walked into her grandmothers room and saw all of her belongings, which was in there, and realised that she needed none of it. She never used any of it . It was just wasted. In her room there was no dust or finger mark where the dust would be collected over a day or two. It was beginning to show because she was not there to clean it.
Conclusion:
Poet describes the emotional part of her life and how she faced her guilt and after that her memories with grandmother is core of the poem that she elaborate it with a massive feelings.
Thank you!
