Reflections on a Gift of Watermelon Pickle

Reflections on a Gift of Watermelon Pickle Received from a Friend Called Felicity

During that summer - significance of that particular summer season, in the distant past -Carol Han 3/19/10 9:56 AM

When unicorns were still possible ;unicorn : metaphor/symbol of childhood when myth was possible  -Ashlee Kang 3/19/10 10:01 AM   Metaphor. Childhood to Unicorns. When, young, innocent, imaginative-Carol Han 3/19/10 10:01 AM 
When the purpose of knees  enjambment : contributes to flowing passage of time -Ashlee Kang 3/19/10 10:00 AM 
Was to be skinned;  caesura : creates pause, which makes the reader reminisce about his/her own childhood -Ashlee Kang 3/19/10 10:03 AM 
When shiny horse chestnuts
    (Hollowed out
    Fitted with straws
    Crammed with tobacco
    Stolen from butts
    In family ashtrays)
Were puffed in green lizard silence
While straddling thick branches
Far above and away
From the softening effects
Of civilization; young, innocent and imaginative childhood -Ashlee Kang 3/19/10 10:07 AM 

always check stanza breaks to explore what changes. Typically tone and/or subject matter will change  -Carol Han 3/19/10 9:57 AM 

During that summer--repetition : emphasises a particular period of time -Ashlee Kang 3/19/10 10:07 AM 
Which may never have been at all;
But which has become more real
Than the one that was--
Watermelons ruled.The powerful memory to heighten past experience -Carol Han 3/19/10 10:24 AM 

Thick imperial slices  lexical choice :  water melons becoming governing -Ashlee Kang 3/19/10 10:09 AM  'Thick, Imperial'  two pre modifying adjectives. Thick- size and power. Imperial- being controlling and governing. In what way? fill the senses and hook back to the memories of the past. Significance of the image-Carol Han 3/19/10 10:14 AM image of powerful, governing, controlling watermelon -Ashlee Kang 3/19/10 10:18 AM 
Melting frigidly on sun-parched tongues imagery (gustatory imagery) -Ashlee Kang 3/19/10 10:14 AM 
Dribbling from chins;  involves reader's senses  -Ashlee Kang 3/19/10 10:15 AM 
Leaving the best part,
The black bullet seeds,  sound devices (plosive alliteration) with imagery-Ashlee Kang 3/19/10 10:10 AM 
To be spit out in rapid fire Sibilant alliteration  -Carol Han 3/19/10 10:17 AM 
Against the wall
Against the wind
Against each other;

And when the ammunition was spent,extended metaphor of watermelon fighting -Ashlee Kang 3/19/10 10:11 AM 
There was always another bite:Describing the abundance of watermelon in the summer. Endless -Carol Han 3/19/10 10:09 AM 
It was a summer of limitless bites,When young, there is no such thing as a 'Limit' Everything comes to them. Childish world of plenty -Carol Han 3/19/10 10:11 AM emphasises that the beauty of childhood is limitless -Ashlee Kang 3/19/10 10:20 AM 
Of hungers quickly felt  Repetition of 'quickly' emphasises the speed -Carol Han 3/19/10 10:08 AM 
And quickly forgotten Enjambment. Lingers the first lines. Gives faster pace.  -Carol Han 3/19/10 10:22 AM 
With the next careless gorging.  lexical choice : creates intensity-Ashlee Kang 3/19/10 10:21 AM 

The bites are fewer now.
Each one is savored lingeringly,Turning point of poem. Change from Childhood -> adulthood. From Part to present.   -Carol Han 3/19/10 10:04 AM   this is where tonal shift happens : -Ashlee Kang 3/19/10 10:19 AM 
Swallowed reluctantly. the repetition (in a way rhyme) echos each other. -Carol Han 3/19/10 10:07 AM 

But in a jar put up by Felicity, -Significance in the name. The  watermelons bring back the past memories so vividly, allowing the poet to even recall the name of the person who gifted the watermelon pickle.Carol Han 3/19/10 10:20 AM The gift of Felicity- a way to childhood bliss. It was more than a gift as it brings back valuable memories.-Carol Han 3/19/10 10:25 AM 
The summer which maybe never was reinforces how childhood passes quickly , and how it is so easy to forget good and happy memories -Ashlee Kang 3/19/10 10:21 AM 
Has been captured and preserved.
And when we unscrew the lid
And slice off a piece
And let it linger on our tongue: Repetition of And -Carol Han 3/19/10 10:03 AM 
Unicorns become possible again. tastes brings back the memories of childhood -Ashlee Kang 3/19/10 10:12 AM 

John Tobias

 

 Tension between idealised past and unpleasant present-Carol Han 3/19/10 9:58 AM 

Taste and vision.... etc bring back the past -Carol Han 3/19/10 9:59 AM