Read the poem below and answer the question that follows.
“Blazon”
by Cecilia Woloch
—after Breton
My love with his hair of nightingales
With his chest of pigeon flutter, of gray doves preening themselves at dawn
With his shoulders of tender balconies half in shadow, half in sun
My love with his long-boned thighs the map of Paris of my tongue
With his ink-stained tongue, his tongue the tip
of a steeple plunged into milky sky
My love with his wishing teeth
With his fingers of nervous whispering, his fingers of a boy
whose toys were cheap and broken easily
My love with his silent thumbs
With his eyes of a window smudged of a train that passes in the night
With his nape of an empty rain coat
hung by the collar, sweetly bowed
My love with his laughter of an empty stairwell, rain all afternoon
With his mouth the deepest flower to which
I have ever put my mouth
The poet uses rhyme and iambic pentameter.
The poet compares her love to beautiful things in nature.
The poem is written as a modern sonnet.
The poem uses hyperbole and imagery.
The poem is a blazon because THE POET COMPARES HER LOVE TO BEAUTIFUL THINGS IN NATURE.
In literature, the blazon refers to a poem that list series of physical attributes of a person or character. Most of the time, the character is usually a female. This type of poem was used freely during the Elizabethan period. This type of poem always compares the body parts of a subject to other things such as jewels, celestial body, natural phenomenon, etc.
