Olive Senior Essay

Olive aged(a) is a Jamaican poet of high repute and is the author of gardening in the Tropics. In this poetry vividness superior seeks to tackle history, moral issues, drop dead and environmental crises. Seniors verses be pervaded with irony, humour and sarcasm and her tone is informal and calm. Seniors style of composing aids in creating a discriminating function which is evident in the poesys perceive the clear-cut, supposition on discolour and Stowaway.Senior in an interview with Kwame Dawes authorise Talk Yuh Talk admits that she has been haunted by the absence of the Tainos and was always unsatisfied with the range of mountains of the Tainos being a simplistic crowd of people that existed before Columbus reach and then they suddenly became extinct. Her interest in the Tainos is evident in her poems Meditation on Yellow and Seeing the Light where she sows seeds of dialogue to the colonial legal opinions that the Europeans achieved anything positive in their conquest.The poem Seeing the Light speaks to the destruction of the Caribbean by the Europeans. Their conquest to the New World/Caribbean was aimed at introducing civilization to the Taino society and Christianity through evangelism. Au contraire, their conquest terminated the lives of the Tainos and resulted in verbaliseless deforestation. Senior employs a bracketed asunder to show up yield conversation to the productivity of the European systems. (Though in their chronicles they may take aim preserve it by another name Conquista?Evangelismo? Civilizacion? ) Senior manipulates Spanish diction which is the tongue of the European colonizers to embellish her argument of counter discourse by mocking and criticizing them. The interrogate mark are utilized to interrogate the Europeans. Additionally, Senior skilfully exploits rhetorical chiefs to challenge and quarter on doubt on the trust of the Europeans and supplement the counter discourse. The speaker issuing to solicit why did those who speak of Light wear black, the colour mourning? wherefore was their countenance so grave? Why on a dead direct did they nail the bringer of Light, peerless Cristo, torture and run through him and then ask us to come, prostrate tidy sum and wor venture him? These questions subtly conjure the cynical tone of the speaker. The third question is the most crucial as it is a direct counter discourse to the Europeans devotion and beliefs. The speaker wants to know why the Europeans would cut down delivery boy Christ, who they wor air and then ask the Tainos to bow down and worship him.Furthermore, Meditation on Yellow c unloads around the stand of exploitation and this relates to the Tainos, Africans and contemporary worker, for example in the tourism industry. Senior deploys a bracketed aside (for heat engenders flamboyant and fires the brain) this creates an extremely satiric and critical tone that interrogates the colonial narratives and seeks to question the motives of the Europeans and reveal their lust and desire for gold and their resultant insanity.Senior puts to use abstract lineation which separates the innocent and peaceful reputation of the Tainos from the lustful and insane Europeans. The break makes the rail line between the two conclaves and adds performativity. In addition, on that point is usage of pun and humour in the lines a bit continent in spite of your vast holdings the tone is sarcastic and it emphasizes that patronage the Europeans immense possessions they cannot hold it in wish waste.Moreover, the bracketed aside (though I was gratified to note that despite the difference in our skins our seduce was exactly the same shade of yellow, is use to symbolize equality through weewee and the diction piss is extremely crude. In the lines I wished for you a sudden understanding that is ironic because the Europeans thought that they had brought or were legal transfer enlightenment to the Tainos, however it was the Tainos this barbaric group of people who wanted to remind them of their location.The voice is again critical and sarcastic as there is counter discourse to the notion that the Europeans were more enlightened and knowledgeable than the Tainos. In these two poems Olive Senior is the vowel system populi. She has given a voice to the Tainos and Africans whose thoughts have been suppressed and effectively offers a afro -centric aspect to the historical events involving the Europeans and natives. In addition, Stowaway explores the journey of a man who decides to stowaway on a ship to a foreign country for a better life.The diction in this poem mimics a monologue as the lector feels like they are being mouth to. A twice entendre appears in the jump line, theres this much home between me and discovery this pun makes the subscriber aware that the traveller has no pose around him and that he impart shortly be discovered. This pun brings to light the wondrous condition aboard t he ship and the indecision of the travel time. The repetition of I creates a distinctive voice and adds an element of performativity to the poem. One day light will enter this grave is another double entendre transport the idea that the man will short be caught or he will soon discover this new filth/territory. Grave is a metaphor for the ship and is a symbol of darkness and therefrom there is a biblical allusion to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The tone created is one of isolation, fear and apprehension which accompanies the theme of travel especially in this case as an undeclared passenger a stowaway.When the speaker decides to just drop down down and wait for the ship to get into his tone becomes calm and relaxed, the tempo is slowed down in contrast to the erratic and mad rhythm before. Olive Senior employs versatile poetic devices namely bracketed aside, metaphor, irony and double entendre to skilfully create distinctive voice in her poems with the aid of her eff ective and stylistic diction and lineation to create counter discourse. She blends these devices and techniques to create tones which contribute to her distinctive voice.