Analysis of Offering by Hilary Tham free essay sample

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. I have chosen the poem â€Å"Offering† by Hilary Tham from the anthologies â€Å"In-Sight-Malaysian Poem† as the poem that I would like to analyze. From reading the title, I have expected the poem to be about some offerings. The title is very short and it creates many questions in my mind. I am curious to know who is offering something to someone and for which reason. After reading the poem I know that the title ‘Offering’ gives a deeper meaning to this poem. I believe that Hilary Tham has managed to convey the issue on relationship with this poem. By reading this poem I now have a new perceptive on love and relationship. Explication of the Poem This poem dramatizes the theme of unreturned love, particularly as this theme relates to the pessimistic sacrifices of the persona. From this poem, the persona tells about one of his/her past personal experiences. The flow of words from the first stanza until the last stanza creates an atmosphere of tense, desperation and passion of the persona, who is trying to win the heart of whom he/she loves dearly. The poem records the change of mood and offerings of the persona according to different parts of the day. It is also the recording of a passage from hope to delusion. The use of Simple Past underlines that the relation between the two persons is completely finished. The different parts of the day resemble the phases of a love story that the persona has faced. The different settings and flowers used in each stanzas reflect the persona’s determination despite the cold response from the person whom he/she is in love with. The persona’s gestures in each stanzas demonstrate his/her intense passion towards the other person. In the first stanza the poem highlights that the persona came at the sunrise. The sunrise suggests the start of the day, of the period. The persona offered the beloved person silvery dew on sleeping lotus. The sleeping lotus is a half-open flower that suggests the state of love that the persona has for the other person. It suggests the beginning of love that the persona had, just like a flower bud that not yet bloomed. The persona was very happy, and the flowers were sparkling in his/her hands. But, the action of the other person suggests that the love that the persona had, has been refused by the other person. The other person put them in the sun, so the flowers probably got dry and died. Here, we can see that the flower that was covered by water (dew) is finished by the fire (sun). This suggests the difference that exists between the persona and the other person. In the second stanza, the persona came at midday. The midday which is usually the most intense moment in the day suggests the most intense moment of the persona’s life. The persona came and danced for the beloved person. The persona bought the other person raintree blossoms. Now the persona has brought full-opened flowers and they were flaming in his/her ardent arms. These suggest that the persona’s love now is mature as it is already blooms. The problem when the love is mature is it will also bring a large hope. It will also leave a deep wound if the love is not accepted as the feeling now is fully developed. For the second time, the other person refuses to accept the persona’s love. The other person didn’t care about the flower and dropped them in the pond. In this stanza the poet again highlights the difference nature of the persona and the other person when the flower from fire (flaming, ardent) finished by the water (pond) Then, in the third stanza the persona came creeping at sunset which represents the persona’s love is dying. Due to the other person reaction in the previous stanza, the persona came with a sort of fear about what was going to happen. The persona bought the other person pale lilac orchids and his/her lips were uncertain. The orchids were pale as the persona’s hope. Again, the other person didn’t appreciate the offering and shredded the petals in the sand. At the end, in the last stanza the persona strode to the other person at midnight which represents the end of the persona’s love. The persona’s strode because he/she was sure of his/her love now and didn’t want to waste more time and wanted to end it all that quickly. This time the persona didn’t brought flowers, but gravel hard and cold, clenched in bitter fists. This suggests that the persona was tired to be refused and full of resentment. For the first time, the other person offered the persona something which are hybrid orchids. The same flower the persona had offered him/her at sunset. The only difference is the orchids are hybrid. They are artificial flowers that are not naturally born. But then, the other person who offered the hybrid orchids crushed them desperately to show that he/she destroyed the hope that the persona has. The poem is composed of four stanzas. The first three stanzas are made up of four lines while the last stanza made up of five lines. Every stanza follows the same scheme with three and four stresses in iambic scheme. The rhyme in the iambic scheme shows the differences between the persona’s and the other person. The poem started with unstressed sound and followed by the stressed sound to implicate the other person has greater superiority than the persona. In the stanzas there is the repetition of the same pattern, not only structural but also semantic. The first line sets the events in a definite part of the day (sunrise, midday, sunset, midnight). It also describes the attitude of the persona that brought the offerings (came, danced, crept, strode). The second line describes the offerings that the persona brought, introducing them with an adjective that characterizes them. The third line describes the way the offerings were brought by the persona and one of his/her features while the fourth and the fifth line tell the reaction of the person who received the offerings. There is also a repetition of phonology in this poem. There are four assonance sounds that can be found from the poem which are ardent arms, blossoms in the pond; petals in the sand; bitter fists. The use of all these repetition which include structural, semantic and phonological in the iambic trimeter or tetrameter creates the pessimistic atmosphere of the persona’s life. With the addition of these repetition in the iambic scheme the persona’s conveyed that he/she repetitively being unappreciated by the other person. Here, we can see the unstressed sound symbolized the persona nature which is weak, and the stressed sound symbolized the nature of the other person which is superior. Therefore this poem rhymes repetitively in iambic scheme. Critical Analysis of the Poem The poem â€Å"Offering† by Hilary Tham explores the theme of love in the voice of the persona. The persona doesn’t introduces the theme of love as we expected to, but she shows the other side of love which is the unrequited love or one-sided love from the persona past experiences. We normally symbolizes love as marriages and happiness, but here, love is being symbolizes as pathetic and sad. Here, I believe that the author wants to show the real nature of the love. For me, I always like to use a twin-edge sword as a metaphor for love. When, it is in our hands, we have to be ready for the consequences. It is because the sharp edge of the sword may also pierce us, and so do love, just like what has been experienced by the persona. The persona also show that the nature of love which is uncompleted. Here, love is shown as a part of feelings which is uncompleted. The person who bears love in his/her hand has to search other who has the same love as he/she does to complete it. Although most readers would say that the persona in this poem is a man, I am unlikely to generalize whether the person is a men or women. For me, I would like to interpret that the pessimistic voice of the persona can be either men or women. It is because all of whether men or women would has experience love in our life, just like the persona did. The use of the various types of flowers does not represent the feminine aspect of the other person in the poem but it brought deeper meaning to the context of the poem. The use of the flowers (sleeping lotus, raintree blossoms, and lilac orchids) from the first to the third stanza symbolizes the purity of the love that the persona had. The persona offers the other person the pure love that he had. This also shows the sincerity of the persona towards the other person. The persona’s love for the other person does not come from reason, the persona just love the other person for what he/she is. Besides that, the flowers also show the nature of love. Like the naturally born flower that the persona uses, love also born naturally and it is a nature of people to fall in love. I believe that in this poem, the persona has manipulated nature to make readers unquestioned his/her love for the other person. The persona also uses the different parts of the day in the poem; (sunrise, midday, sunset, and midnight). The poem started with the sunrise that suggests the start of the day, of the period. It suggests the coming of the persona and end with the midnight that suggests the end of the day and of the persona’s dream to win the other person’s love. It suggests the unhappiness, obscurity and  despair. The life cycle throughout the sun cycle has made this poem become more pessimistic as it suggest that the persona is born, live, and will die for his/her love. This also supports the point from the previous paragraph as the natural cycle of the earth symbolizes the naturally born love that the persona had. 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. In my opinion, this is the most important stanza that reveals the theme of the poem. In addition, the last line of the stanza is very ambiguous and it arouses many questions from the reader, specifically by me. This stanza reveals the theme of the poem as it truly arousing sympathy as it reflects an unreturned love. The (midnight/gravel hard and cold) creates the images of frustration as he clenched his fists in misery. In the following line, the other person offered the persona hybrid orchids which reflect the differences between the persona and the other person which might be the statues or level of knowledge. In the last stanza the persona did not clearly state either he/she or the other person that crushed the artificial orchid. Most of my friends assume that the persona is the one who crushed the artificial orchids. The explanation for this assumption is that the persona crushed the hybrid orchids as though he is crushing his dreams when he realized his love was an unrequited love. For this assumption I would also like to add a deeper value to the context of the hybrid orchid. In my opinion, since hybrid is a term that is use by man-made things, this portrayed that the girl is already polluted. In contrary to the persona’s love that he/she offers which is pure (symbolized by the natural flower), the other person is no longer pure (hybrid orchid), as if a women who had lost their virginity and maybe she is already married/pregnant (men made her to pregnant). The persona is frustrated with the reality that the other person presented to him/her. Therefore, the persona crushed the hybrid orchids as though he/she is crushing his dreams when he/she realized the other nature of the other person love. On the other hands, I believe that in this poem, it is the other person who crushed the artificial orchid. In my opinion the hybrid orchid in this poem symbolizes the superiority of the other person. I believe that we always relate hybrid objects to something which evolves better than the actual object. Hence, this strongly supports the differences in classes between the persona and the other person. Here, the persona implied that the other person does not accept his/her love because he/she does not have an equal status with the other person. Another point that supports that the other person is the one who crushed the flower is the increasing intensity of the verb that the persona uses to demonstrate the other person action throughout the poem. We can see the verb increase it tense by starting from put (my flower) dropped (my blossoms) – shredded (my petal). Therefore, it is expected that the verb crushed (them) to be appear in the last stanza to show the reaction of the other person. This also suggests that as time passed by the other person become annoy with the persona. The increase in tense of the manner of the other person, from ‘put’ to ‘dropped’ to ‘shredded’ to ‘crushed’ again support the theme of this poem which shows the unrequited love of the persona. Besides the common understanding of the poem I also have my own version of understanding for this poem assuming that the author is the persona in this poem. Since the author is a female poet, I think that the other theme that the persona has developed is the love of a mother towards her son/daughter. The persona represents as the mother while the other person represents as an ungrateful child. For this explanation, the persona uses different parts of a day (sunrise, midday, sunset, and midnight) to show the eternal love of the mother from the day the child was born (sunrise) until the when the mother is old (midnight). The offering (sleeping lotus, raintree blossoms, and lilac orchids), symbolizes the sacrifice that the mother has made for her child throughout her life. The act of crushing the hybrid orchids in this poem suggests that the child is being rebellious. At this moment (midnight) when the mother is old the child now has probably become a teenager. The child has did not appreciate the mother sacrificial, in fact he/she crushed the hybrid orchids to show that he/she would be better by himself/herself without his/her mother. The hybrid orchids also symbolized as the hope of the mother, it is hybrid because the mind of the child is corrupted by other things. Since, the last line of the last stanza is ambiguous we should also take consideration if the mother is the one who destroyed the hybrid orchids. For this analysis, the hybrid orchids here represent the wealth and materialistic things that the child offers. The child now probably now has forgotten the mother and just sending money to the mother because of responsibility. The mother crushed it to show that it is not wealth that the mother wants. The mother only wants the attention of her child. Here, we can also relates to the first theme which is unrequited love. The mother love was unrequited by the son because he/she has other things to priorities before his/her mother love. In conclusion, this poem offers me a new dimension and perceptive towards love and relationship. The experience of the persona managed to make readers feel the pessimistic mood of the persona and also reveals the main idea of this poem. Love sometimes is cruel and from this poem I have realized that we do not need reason to love. Therefore, we should appreciate the person we love and so do the people who love us.