Gabriela Mistral- Odalys Aleman
Gabriela Mistral was born in Vicuña, Chile. She was a poet, diplomat, educator ,and feminist. She was born April 7th, 1889 and died on January 10, 1957. She was the first Latin American women to win a Nobel Prize for Literature.
Song Of Death
Old Woman Census-taker,
Death the Trickster,when you're going along,
don't you meet my baby.
Sniffing at newborns,
smelling for the milk,
find salt, find cornmeal,
don't find my milk.
Anti-Mother of the world,
People-Collector -
on the beaches and byways,
don't meet that child.
The name he was baptized,
that flower he grows with,
forget it, Rememberer.
Lose it, Death.
Let wind and salt and sand
drive you crazy, mix you up
so you can't tell
East from West,
or mother from child,
like fish in the sea.
And on the day, at the hour,
find only me.
The speaker of the poem is a someone who has lost a child or young person in their lives. They are personifying death as one who takes the lives of babies. The speaker is going against death and saying that those who die should be remembered. At the end it also states that eventually we will all face death. She is saying that Death comes and takes who it pleases ripping apart families.
Death the Trickster,when you're going along,
don't you meet my baby.
Sniffing at newborns,
smelling for the milk,
find salt, find cornmeal,
don't find my milk.
Anti-Mother of the world,
People-Collector -
on the beaches and byways,
don't meet that child.
The name he was baptized,
that flower he grows with,
forget it, Rememberer.
Lose it, Death.
Let wind and salt and sand
drive you crazy, mix you up
so you can't tell
East from West,
or mother from child,
like fish in the sea.
And on the day, at the hour,
find only me.
The speaker of the poem is a someone who has lost a child or young person in their lives. They are personifying death as one who takes the lives of babies. The speaker is going against death and saying that those who die should be remembered. At the end it also states that eventually we will all face death. She is saying that Death comes and takes who it pleases ripping apart families.
“Sniffing at newborns,smelling for the milk” - This is imagery; it allows you imagine the sound and picture of little babies.
“People-Collector” - It's personifying death. Death is a person who just collects the lives.
“Death the Trickster” - Again, it is saying that death is a person who is tricking them into giving up their lives.
All these quotes have a huge impact because it makes it seem that the lives Death is taking are the lives of innocent children and those who have been tricked by death. Death has left many behind and taken the lives of those who were still full of life.
The tone of the poem is gloomy and sentimental. It is saying that death is taking the lives of children, which is a sad concept to everyone. People are affected by death in a variety of ways; that is why it is sentimental as well. The speaker is also trying to get death to face them and not the innocent youth, so it carries a feeling of hopelessness. Death is tragic, especially when one who still had their whole life ahead of them ,and weren't able to accomplish their goals.
The theme of the poem is death doesn't pick and choose who shall die; we will all face death eventually. Death doesn't care if you're young or old, a mom or a child, it just happens. There are times that we wish death wouldn't take the lives of the young, but at the end of the day, we can't decide for Death. We should all remember the lives that death has taken because we all will face death one day.
When the poem talks about “baby”, “newborn”, “child”, “he grows”, it gives you an image of death taking away innocent children. It gives you a feeling like life is being cut short. When I think of death on the beaches, I think of war. The young soldiers are being sent off the foreign beaches, where they face constant death. Death is also referred to as the “anti Mother of the world,” which makes the Death a worldwide issue that everyone is facing at the moment like war. The stanzas are cut into small sections of four. They are broken up into these sections just like the lives of the young children facing Death.
works cited:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriela_Mistral
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriela_Mistral#/media/File:Gabriela_Mistral-01.jpg imageP
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/song-of-death-2/ poem
works cited:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriela_Mistral
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriela_Mistral#/media/File:Gabriela_Mistral-01.jpg imageP
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/song-of-death-2/ poem
I really like your poem! and agree to your message on how death is the anti-mother. After reading the poem a couple times I kinda see the poem as a story of a mother taking care of their child it's whole life and them growing and the mother preventing this image of the "anti-mother" from ever coming close to their kid to only have it snatched away with no reason. In my opinion the wind and salt and sand could be a symbolic meaning of a storm and brings up an image of clashing waves, signifying how even if you cry and mourn in the end you can't get them back, which makes the poem really dark and sentimental.
ReplyDeleteI loved how you came to the realization that everyone faces death- no matter what country, race, or religion. I think that the speaker is focusing on the fact that Death waits for no one. The speaker repeatedly says, "don't you meet my baby" meaning: you have taken all that remains in my life but my child. This feeling of pleading relates to all of us. There is so much that we cannot control in life: our health, our future, our families etc. For the speaker, their child represents stability and love in their life. The speaker even goes far enough to say "take me instead!"
ReplyDeleteGood job on your poem i really like it. You did a really good job on relating your message of the poem together. I can picture the poem in my head of a mother taking care of the child or expecting a child that she had lost. Also how death can happen to anyone and you do need to be remember for it because everyone is important. I do like how you related all this.
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ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with the idea that the death comes to everyone. The speaker of the poem sounds like they are willing to do anything to protect their child. They keep telling "Death" not to look at their child, not to even think about them. At the end of the poem, the speaker seems to come to terms with the fact that death will come eventually, but she seems ready to fight for the life of her child. The speaker even seems to be telling death to take her instead if death needs someone: "And on the day, at the hour,
ReplyDeletefind only me." I also agree with what you said about death being a worldwide issue, that the poem encompasses the problems of the world. The speaker in this poem knows that death is inevitable, but she loves her child so much that she will even try to fight death "herself" to protect her child.