Who wrote the poem A girl

Q: What is the poem a girl about?

Girl is a prose poem about a mother providing life advice and instruction to her daughter. It is written by Antiguan author Jamaica Kincaid as one long sentence with each piece of advice separated by semi-colons.

Ezra Weston Loomis Pound, the great expatriate American poet and critic, used his iconic Imagism to write the poem ‘A girl’ where he used the mythical characters of Apollo and Daphne to showcase the creative imaginations of a girl from two different perspectives; an older child and an adult, where the girl transforms herself into a tree.

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Analysis of Pound’s “A Girl”
Ezra Pound: Poems Summary and Analysis of "A Girl"
What is the poem a girl about?
Who wrote to you poem?
Who wrote The Road Not Taken?

A Girl

BY EZRA POUND

The tree has entered my hands,
The sap has ascended my arms,
The tree has grown in my breast-
Downward,
The branches grow out of me, like arms.

Tree you are,
Moss you are,
You are violets with wind above them.
A child – so high – you are,
And all this is folly to the world.

Analysis of Pound’s “A Girl”

In the poem ‘A girl’, Ezra Pound used two mythical characters as the leading flow of the poem. The first one was the myth of Apollo, the Sun God, and the second was Daphne, a nymph. When it comes to Apollo, the Sun God, there is a traditional myth that he insulted Eros (or Cupid, which is his Roman name) saying that he was unworthy of his (Eros) bow and arrow which were warlike. In anger, Eros threw two arrows, each separately for Apollo and Daphne, the nymph.

The poet has emphasized on Eros’s emotions behind his actions, in throwing two separate arrows at both of them. An arrow that would make Apollo fall in love with Daphne while an arrow of hatred that would make Daphne loath Apollo, making Apollo suffer. While this story has a strong mythological perspective, and a clear intention by Pound to deliver a specific message to the poem, there are many contemporary interpretations.

There might be a chance that the first narrator is an older child detailing her transformation into a tree in a figurative way, letting her imaginations run wild in the process. On the other hand, the second stanza can be understood from the perspective of an adult, who feels that she should escape into the reverie, reminding the girl that even if the world thinks of her figurative transformation and more importantly her rampant imaginations as “folly”, she shouldn’t let anything dampen her creative side of imagination.

The poet uses “A child—so high—you are/and this is folly to the world” to portray Apollo’s anguish following Daphne’s transformation into a tree just to express the loathing that she possessed for Apollo. The poem opens a vast space for the readers to use their creative perspective to understand the tone of the story and see the poem from different, and versatile angles.

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Ezra Pound: Poems Summary and Analysis of "A Girl"

Summary:

Ezra Pound likely based this poem on the myth of Apollo, the Sun God, and Daphne, a nymph. The traditional myth is that Apollo insulted Eros (or Cupid, his Roman name), saying he was not worthy of his warlike bow and arrow. In response, Eros angrily shot Apollo with an arrow to induce his love, and then shot the nymph Daphne with an arrow to make her feel hatred. Apollo fell head over heels for Daphne and continuously followed her, while she loathed him (and all men), desperate to shake his pursuit. Finally, Eros intervened to help Apollo catch Daphne, but she begged her father, Peneus, to change her form. He agreed, and thus Daphne transformed into a tree. "A Girl" details her transformation. In the poem, Apollo accepts Daphne as she is, but laments her foolish choice to transform into a tree in the last two lines: "A child—so high—you are/and this is folly to the world."

Analysis

Ezra Pound chose to employ split narration in this poem. The first five-line stanza reads as if Daphne is narrating. She closely details her transformation, describing the feeling of the tree entering her hands and growing in her breast. However, Pound wrote the second half of the poem from the perspective of a third-person onlooker, likely Apollo.

While this poem has a strong basis in mythology, and Pound clearly wrote it with this particular story in mind, there are more contemporary interpretations, as well. The first narrator could be an older child detailing her figurative transformation into a tree, letting her imagination run wild. The second stanza could be from the perspective of an adult who understands her need to escape into reverie, assuring the girl that even if the world finds her imagined transformation to be "folly," she shouldn't let that dampen her creative instincts.

The free verse form of this poem is extremely effective, particularly since it's so short. The lack of rigid structure makes it easier to picture this poem as a conversation between the two different narrators. The free verse also adds to the whimsical, childish sense of the interpretation of the poem that does not center around mythology; a child's imagination is not constrained by any sort of structure, so neither is this poem.

Though critics and scholars continue to argue over whether the true interpretation of this poem lies in mythology or is a lesson on childhood imagination, it is possible that Pound had both meanings in mind. Pound was probably using the well-known myth of Apollo and Daphne to relay a wider message about the way society looks at imagination and creativity.

What is the poem a girl about?

'Girl' is a prose poem about a mother providing life advice and instruction to her daughter. It is written by Antiguan author Jamaica Kincaid as one long sentence with each piece of advice separated by semi-colons.

Who wrote to you poem?

Walt Whitman is an iconic 19th century American poet, often credited with establishing a uniquely American poetic voice. One of his poem's is entitled, "To You" and is probably the poem to which the question refers.