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Ode to SuburbiaWritten by Eavan BolandPresented by Michael Scaccia
Vocab words to know• Ode: a poem meant to be sung• Suburbia: a collective area of suburbs which are
an area outside a city• Gape: to stare with a wide open mouth in wonder• Varicose: abnormally or unusually large • Cot: a bed like sleeping apparatus• Sinews: source of power or strength• Encroach: deviate from usual power, make new
roads, trespass• Spinster: a woman unmarried beyond normal age
Literary Features• Man vs. Fate
• Power
• Tone
• Six O’clock: the kitchen bulbs which blister
• Your Dark, your housewives starting to nose
• Out each other’s day, the claustrophobia
• Of your back gardens varicose
• With shrubs make an ugly sister
• Of you suburbia
• How long ago did the glass in your windows subtly
• Silver into mirrors which again
• And again show the same woman
• Shriek at a child, which multiply
• A dish, a brush, ash,• The gape of a fish
• In the kitchen, the gape of a child in the cot?
• You swelled so that when you tried
• The silver slipper on your foot
• It pinched your instep and the common
• Hurt which touched you made
• You Human
• No creatures of your streets will feel the touch
• Of a wand turning the wet sinews
• Of fruit suddenly to a coach,
• While this rat without leather reins
• Or a whip or britches continues
• Slimming your drains
• No magic here. Yet you encroach me until
• The shy countryside, fooled
• By your plainness falls, then rises
• From your bed changed, schooled
• Forever by your skill, • Your comprises.
• Midnight and your metamorphosis
• Is now complete, although the mind
• Which spinstered now might still miss
• Your mystery now, might still fail
• To see your powers defined
• By this detail:
• By this creature drowsing now in every house,
• The same lion who tore stripes
• Once off zebras, who now sleeps
• Small beside the coals and may
• On a red letter day• Catch a mouse.
Allusions• Suburbia refers to the communities and more
often than not the housewives that inhabit there (main character) • Housewives are represented in this way due to how they
are enveloped in this environment and are therefore “shaped” by it
• Midnight is often referred to the magical hours of night in poem• The narrator receives her imaginary powers during this
time
• Most likely can refer to any period of time as suburbia's still exist today and there are still housewives
Inarguable• Context:
• It is similar to most of her poems as each stanza is comprised of 4 lines each and a similar syllable count effective in each stanza
• This poem comprises of 7 stanzas with 6 lines each• Syllable count varies with each individual stanza
• Meaning of the poem• The poem takes place between the times of 6 a.m. and midnight• This time involves a transformation from an urban mom to an
individual with freedom beyond imagination• The audience of the his poem would mostly comprise of housewives• A female (who is the persona of the speaker) narrates her
lifestyle as she is a victim of her environment and limited lifestyle• Such constraints are her children and commitments• She dreams to break away from this
Arguable• Claim: This poem presents two contrasting ideals
of the narrator’s world • One is real and the other is imaginary• This imaginary world is often mocked compared to
being unrealistic• This is compared to a lion eating a mouse
• The real world is hated and dull • Represented by the “claustrophobia” and “ugly sister”• Gape of a child should also be noted as the constant
attention to children is never ending
Literary Features• Man vs. Fate
• The denial of present stance in the world of the narrator• Fate will bring her back to reality the next day • There is no perfect world
• Power• Is a necessity to be obtained• Provides the ability for independence• Breaks free from traditional perspective of life
• Tone• Full of despair in the beginning• Infinitely tied to child and home
• Aspiration in the end• Even a little freedom is asked for