WSS Poem Metacognitive

Katie Lopes-Raftery
Ms. Clapp
AP Literature and Composition
9 March 2009
Wide Sargasso Sea Metacognitive

My original intention in writing a found poem for Wide Sargasso Sea was to mirror the sections in terms of what happened while at the same time using metaphors to be able to connect it on a broader scale to a universal idea. I first had two epigraphs, one of them being “The spirit, I trust, is willing, but the flesh, I see, is weak" (457). But later I realized that I didn’t talk about giving in to temptation that much, so I took out this epigraph and kept “remorse is the poison of life” (144). To me, this connected to the poem and the book especially where Rochester speaks where we can clearly see that he is a bit crazy himself for regretting his decisions. The title I chose for my poem is Underneath the Tropical Paradise. My second peer editor thought that this title meant that the speaker would be Bertha and that she would have a nostalgic point of view, from the time before she was taken away. However, that’s not what I wanted to convey. I really wanted to give a dual meaning. Yes, she was taken away, but I also wanted to show what it felt like to be taken away, not remembering what it was like to leave. Even in the first stanza, I take the readers to a garden floor, where a white cockroach lives. It goes under most forms of civilized life.
So in my first stanza, I made the speaker sound like a bug, the cockroach, which was well observed by one of my peer editors. I think by doing this, it showed how Antoinette felt in that beautiful paradise-at times, like the bug at the bottom of the garden. I started with two very blunt lines, hopefully giving a general idea of what the whole stanza would be about- “A solitary life (18) in (67) my (56) wild (19) garden (19).
Overgrown (104) but (101) empty (18), poisoned (18).” It shows how Antoinette feels alone in this big world she calls her wild garden-life. It is overgrown with people and ideas yet it’s empty, and poisoned with weeds; not a tame garden. The next lines reveal the speaker of the stanza and a third party’s view on her: “A (18) white cockroach, (23) alone (26). Go away (23). Go away (23). Go away (23).” This alludes to the part in the book where the young black girl called Antoinette a white cockroach, and told her to go away. I repeated “go away” three times to reinforce how everywhere Antoinette turned, she was rejected from people (the girl, her mother etc). The next two lines, “Consoling hope (119) only in (118) the wall (178), the moss (57). It (174) never (78) says (93) “go away” (23),” shows how Antoinette takes comfort in the wall, the marker between being isolated in an overgrown garden and living in a corrupt world. It can also suggest her love of nature, and that she (a cockroach) takes comfort only in the moss, a natural plant. The next lines demonstrate that saying, “On the (83) other side (175), they made (138) the wall (117) red (181). Money (24). Obeah (145). Blood (167). Curses (150). Death (150). All on (87) the other side (85) of that (36) red (130) wall (117).” The “they” in the poem isn’t clearly referred to anyone, but it can be compared to the white settlers that come and move next door to Antoinette. So on the other side, corruptness is portrayed by the blunt one-word conflicts in the book, or the things that create it. In the book, Antoinette has a dream of being chased in a forest, so I wanted to play with that a bit. Because there is a snake in the garden (hmm… maybe alluding to the one in the Garden of Eden), she leaves for that “unknown forest” called marriage. (I obviously noticed the need to change speakers in the next stanza).
The second stanza starts off with another point of view. Now, it isn’t a cockroach, but rather just Rochester. He says “Caught in the rain (99), we (83) hide (100). Looking out (70), I think (83), “what have (138) I (78) done (180)?” Both Rochester and Antoinette get caught in the rain, but it can be also mean that they were both off to a new beginning (baptism) yet while Rochester looks out at the rain and watches Antoinette stay in it, he realizes that he probably made a big mistake. In the next lines, I portray Rochester as a pure white tourist who “can’t take the heat of the kitchen.” It reads, “Everything is too much (140) in this (38) blazing (25) Granbois (118). Moths and beetles (149) burn to their death (149) Like (19) a cold (126) dark dream (140).” I chose the word blazing to convey that hot, burning feeling, like I sometimes feel on a summer vacation. The Granbois is the family estate, so it connects to the book’s sequence of events. I continued this irritated feeling by adding in the insects in the next lines, which die from the heat in the candle in the book. I then contrast the heat with the “cold, dark dream” suggesting that he hopes that this experience is but a dream. In the next lines, I play with an idea that Rochester said about flowers- “Flamboyant flowers (185) don’t live long (76), A (87) petal falling (87) one (45) by (60) one (45) onto (93) dirt (48)
Under (72) the dark (117) sky (119).” It also suggests that Antoinette is very fragile, like a flower, and that one careless touch makes a petal fall onto dirt, back to where it came from. I believed that the cock was a sign of betrayal, and in the book, Antoinette goes to Mounes Mors, which explains my next lines: “Under (72) the dark (117) sky (119).
With a (73) cock that crows (127), past the (38) Mounes Mors (120) we go (93).” These lines foreshadow the end of the poem/book. Betrayal and “the dead ones” both go together to suggest the end of something; in this case, a marriage. The last two lines truly demonstrate that Rochester truly regrets his decision of marrying Antoinette since he wants to “) take her away (140) from this (73) ill place (160). The (62) memory to be avoided (166),” forgetting that she ever existed. This last line also gives us a sense of where the next stanza is going to be, or at least, where it’s not.
The next stanza changes point of view again; this time to the “non-crazy” Antoinette/Bertha. With the first line we see that the honeymoon is over (in a figurative and literal sense). Where Antoinette is now, it is “(62) very (82) bitter (73) cold (173).” I remember when I was in England last summer, it would always be cold, a crisp bitter cold. Not only did I make it literal, but I wanted to show how Antoinette felt no passion being there. The next lines are pretty simple, “Lost (82) in an (83) unfamiliar (174) environment (38), Am I still (64) the white cockroach (23)?” She obviously doesn’t know where she is, so she questions her identity and answers it by saying “Maybe, (73) but not (73) in my garden (19).” Once again, she is away from the only place where her comfort (that wall) was, so being away from her garden should show that she does not feel at ease in the “cardboard box” she now lives in. When I think of living in a cardboard box, I thought of limitations and restrictions to freedom, which is what I think Antoinette feels while living at Thornfield, conveyed by the next line, “No space (73) to live (173).” At the end of the book, there is a lot about life and death, so I added that into my poem, saying that it can practically be defined by the color red. In the book, Antoinette remembers when she kissed Sandi, calling it the life and death kiss, an action that affected a lot of things that would happen. She watches the red sky and sees fragments of her life pass before her, thus the pairing of life and death with red. In the next line, I vividly describe that red: “A fire (178) red (185). A (87) blood (167) red (185),” hoping to portray that passion. In the final lines of my poem, it reads “Everything (84) comes (73) down to (47) nothing (82). So we rode away (172).” At the end of the book, we are left with a suspense as to what happens, and in my poem I suggest that everything that was once built up has now come tumbling down. I tried to relate the last line to when we rode away past the Mournes Mors in the second stanza. Sometimes, things just end.
Overall, I wanted my poem to parallel the book without being too close to its meaning. I originally had about 15 lines in the first and second stanzas, but I cut them down to 10 to keep it to a concise poem instead of just wanting to summarize what happened. I feel like I did a good job in bringing the readers on a mini journey. We first started off as cockroaches in an overgrown garden. We then saw what it was like to look from the other side, to look down on someone. And finally we were brought to a cockroach inside a woman’s mind. In the end, she got away didn’t she?