ANALYSIS OF THE POEM: “OFFERINGS”

Page: 459

Title: Offerings

Writter: Hilary Tham

I came to you sunrise,

With silvery dew on sleeping lotus

Sparkling in my gay hands;

You put my flowers in the sun.

5 I danced to you at midday,

With bright raintree blooms

Flaming in my ardent arms;

You dropped my blossoms in the pond.

I crept to you at sunset,

10 With pale lilac orchids

Trembling on my uncertain lips;

You shredded my petals in the sand.

I strode to you at midnight,

With gravel hard and cold

15 Clenched in my bitter fists;

You offered me your hybrid orchids,

And crushed them in despair.

From reading the title I expect the poem to be about some one who offers something.

The title tells us that somebody wants to make to an other person some offers about, for example, his love.

The poem is arranged into five stanzas, where  three are quatrains and one consists of five lines. It is the stanza closing.

There are four assonance sounds: ardent arms; blossoms (in the) pond; petals (in the) sand; bitter fists.

In addition, there are four action verbs taht make up a syntatical structure: I… (came, danded, crept, strode) to you, and they are at the start of every stanzas in the first line.

From reading the poem I expect the person who makes some offers is a man, because, I think, when a man is madly in love with a girl, he is able to do something to win the girl back.

The stanzas are arranged following the different parts of the day: sunrise, midday, sunset and midnight.

The sunrise suggests the start of the day, of the period. It suggests the coming of the man.

The midnight suggests the end of the day and of the man’s dream win back the girl. It suggests the unhappiness, obscurity and despair.

Every stanzas talks about the man,his offerings and his emotions; and then the lines talks about the girl and what she makes with the man’s presents.

Considering her behaviour, I expect the girl does not fall in love with the man and thus she condemns his behaviour.

This poem describes the life cycle throught the sun cycle; to be born (sunrise), to live (midday) and to die (midnight).