Salazar,
Mary Jane Jan M. January
5, 2012
III-14
AB/BSE Literature Introduction
to Literary Criticism
A Formalist Approach to “Batik Maker”
by Virginia Moreno
Poetry demands many things of a reader, one of which is in depth
analysis and interpretation. This is primarily the reason why many people turn
away from away from poetry because of the difficulty in comprehension it brings
to its readers. However, the key to understanding and appreciating poetry is in
a more critical consideration of its formalist components. These formalist
components enable a reader or a critique to get into the mind of the poet and
understand the poet’s intentions and sympathize with the emotions contained in
the poem. In Virginia Moreno’s “Batik Maker” the formalist elements of poetry
take a front seat in conveying the appropriate messages to the reader.
The poem begins with a literary deception. The title suggests that the poem is about the “batik” maker. However,
after second and later readings, it becomes apparent that the next lines truly
depicts what the poem is really about, for we learn more about the design
weaved by the “batik” maker in the cloth than we learn about the “batik” maker
himself. As the persona talks about the “batik” maker, he really reveals the
irony of his own domineering characteristics, that is being able to see what
the “batik” maker creates on the fabric and yet being unable to “touch, wake,
and bury” the huntsman imprinted on the cloth. It becomes visible that the
“batik” maker holds the full control on the cloth’s design. This irony is
significant, because it sets up the paradoxical nature of the rest of the poem.
“Batik Maker” is based upon a series of ironic twists which are supported by
the poem’s form and literary devices.
The poem
has no clear rhyme scheme, it has three stanzas and in between these stanzas is
a line. There is also a repetition of the phrase “and I cannot” in the lines 7, 15,
and 22. The poem
also exemplifies enjambment-- breaking
of a phrase or sentence at an unexpected point, typically in verse. In the
poem, each stanza makes up one complete sentence. The enjambment adds an
unexpected element to the poem, causing surprise, confusion and thereby additional attention. The unusual break in
each stanza of the poem therefore adds suspense and sustains attention.
Imagism is
evidently used in the poem as shown by the use of words which can be found in
nature. An example is in the lines 3-6, we can clearly visualize a huntsman
trapped in mangroves surrounded by antlers. The second stanza gives us an image
of a man struggling to death but no one can hear his mournful cry except the birds
near the place. The last stanza portrays an unmoving man carrying an enclosed
litter where a spectre of a panther is to be found.
All in all, Virginia Moreno’s
“Batik Maker” made use of the formalist elements of poetry to take a front seat
in conveying to the readers the appropriate messages enveloped in the poem.
References:
Batik
Maker. February 09, 2011. Retrieved from http://allaboutjeff.wordpress.com/
2009/
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