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The Harvest Bow And Aunt Jennifers Tigers
| Term Paper Title |
The Harvest Bow And Aunt Jennifers Tigers |
| # of Words |
1682 |
| # of Pages (250 words per page double spaced) |
6.73 |
The Harvest Bow and Aunt Jennifer's Tigers
In the poems “The Harvest Bow” and “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers” , the physical artifacts represented in each poem is symbolic of each characters ideal world. The poets do not confine themselves with the restrictions imposed by poetry where ideas are conveyed solely through the utilization of words. The poems utilize a poetic technique, where the use of physical artifacts such as a painting or ornament are used as a means to convey the poets thoughts and opinions with the image provided by these artifacts. The poets do not confine themselves within the communative limitations of words, instead a higher level of communication is demonstrated where the reader is provided with an image as well as language. Poetry expresses thoughts and opinions to the degree where the reader is left to incorporate personal meanings in order to make sense of the obscurity found in most poems. By describing the creation of a picture or ornamental love-knot, the poet is able to limit the multitudinous meanings found by the reader, allowing the poet to further implicate his or her beliefs and situations. Thus, the use of physical artifacts provides a freedom to express that which the characters in each poem lacks in their lives. Though unable to grasp the images that they create, each character in the poems gains a sense of self awareness. These utopian moments expressed by the creations are frozen, images that surpass the lives of their creators and remain intact with meaning. Through the utilization of physical artifacts, Aunt Jennifer and the Ornament maker depict idealized situations through the use of visual imagery, applying symbolism onto the physical artifacts in turn allowing the grasp of self awareness.
In each poem visual imagery is expressed through the intrinsic detail provided in the making of a straw ornament and needle point screen. In Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers, Aunt Jennifer is introduced as a feeble character caught amidst her needle work. Aunt Jennifer’s reality is contrasted with the scene in which she is creating. Aunt Jennifer is burdened by the “massive weight of Uncle’s wedding band” (Rich 7), as she constructs her tigers that in turn “prance across a screen...” (Rich 1). The poet utilizes irony to illustrate the ‘cuffed’ hands imprisoned by the massive ring, making the same hands as the creators of the sleek chivalric certainty embodied by the tigers.
Little description is given of Aunt Jennifer disclosing a sense of irrelevance to her presence. Unlike their creator who sinks into the background, the tiger’s are described as “bright topaz denizens” (Rich 2). Furthermore, the tigers are again contrasted with the men in the background, a counterpart in the illustration. These men are described as “beneath the tree” (Rich 3) almost clinging to their only defense against the powerful tigers. Ironically, these men are in fear of the a “sleek chivalric tigers...” (Rich 4). This idea is then once again contrasted with Aunt Jennifer’s reality where she in turn is dominated by the male superiority exemplified by Uncle.
Tigers are symbolic of the female gender in that their composures are lady like, their walk has a feminine quality characterized with elegance. The tigers are illustrated to have a confident pace without rush or worry, whereas “Aunt Jennifer’s fingers flutter through her wool” (Rich 5), again implying a contrast with the tigers.
Aunt Jennifer’s reality lacks the control the tigers have over their environment . The illustration is an image of Aunt Jennifer's ideal world where the limitations found in her reality vanish. Instead of feeling inferior towards the opposite sex, she would in turn dominate. The visual images represented by Aunt Jennifer’s screen allows further interpretation through the comparison of Aunt Jennifer’s reality and her vision of equality.
Aunt Jennifer displays weakness by merely referring to the tigers. She does not blame anyone for the lack of an equal world. Through the creation of the tigers she conveys that ...Read entire document
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