Sunday, January 26, 2014

How does Pat Mora use imagery to make a point about the woman's life in her poem "Petals"?

The primary images that Pat Mora creates are of flowers and the many colors in them. However, some of the flowers are natural and some of them are human-made. The poet uses size along with color to distinguish the crepe-paper flowers, which are large and bright, from the woman herself, who is small with gray hair and wears white. She also contrasts the paper blooms in the market from the “soft blooms” that were the wildflowers in the rocky hills, those that inspired the flower-maker. Mora also uses the sense of touch in her contrasting images. In the present, the flower-maker’s hands are calloused, but in her remembered youth, her fingers were smooth. Overall, visibility plays a strong role. The paper flowers attract the tourist buyers’ attention but the woman herself does not. The “tourist . . . see her flowers . . . but not her because she is hidden, like her memories of the wildflowers."
https://books.google.com/books?id=ybmOv6LgG8gC&dq=pat+mora+petals&source=gbs_navlinks_s

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