Bare Bones Essay examples -- Poetry Analysis

The song Sometimes the Words Are So Close,(963) written by Julia Alvarez, discusses how words like a person can be stripped down and made uncomplicated. People are full of layers that surround them everyday. Each layer can be put away one at a time, down to the bare essentials and in that space, people can be who they truly are. This is as well where she explores her voice as a woman. Andrea Schaefer said, in reference to the 33 Sonnet collection, ...Alvarez further explores the themes of her voice taking flight and the powers of language to effect personal and political change. These poems more explicitly address her Dominican roots and her childhood in a dictatorship/ when real talk was punishable by death... During another interview, Alvarez stated ...The page is where I learned to put unneurotic my different worlds, where Ive put down the deepest roots... Although born in New York, Alvarez lived in the Dominican Republic with her family for her first ten years. Unfortunatel y, they had to flee back to the United States as political exiles in 1960. On writing, Alvarez stated, ...Not understanding the language, I had to pay close attention to each word -- great training for a writer. I also discovered the welcoming world of the imagination and books... Alvarezs poem addresses the two worlds she grew up in, the Dominican Republic and the United States and the differences of language in each. Through an implied metaphor, the speaker of the poem unveils herself, a line at a time, while simultaneously building upon the figure(7) of the poem to reveal at its core, a woman. Words(1) are practically difficult to form into speech, especially when there is a barrier of translating what they mean as opposed to what they say.... ...Sienna M Potts Siennese.com. Web. 26 Mar. 2012. .Alvarez, Julia. Andrea Schaefer. American Writers A Collection of literary Biographies, Supplement 7. Ed. Jay Parini. New York Charles Scribners Sons, 2001. From Scribner Writers Serie s. 26 Mar. 2012.Alvarez, Julia. Sometimes the Words Are So Close. Meyers 963.Kevane, Bridget and Juanita Heredia. Julia Alvarez and Juanita Heredia. Latina Self-Portraits Interviews with Contemporary Women Writers. Ed. Citizen of the World An Interview with Julia Alvarez. Albuquerque, N.M. University of New Mexico Press, 2000. p19-32. Rpt. In Hunter, Jeffrey W. Contemporary Literary Criticism. 274. Detroit Gale. From literary productionsResource Center. 26 Mar. 2012Meyer, Michael. The Bedford Introduction to Literature. 9th Ed. Boston Bedford/ St. Martins, 2012. print.