Analysis of the Poem "To A Lost One" by Angela Manalang-Gloria
I.
TITLE
Readers
might think that the meaning of the poem is directly communicated by
the title itself. “To a Lost One” could be called a “dedicatory” or “memorial” poem
which the author wrote for a loved one who had already perished or passed away. With this reason, readers may conclude that it involves an author speaking to a
ghost as its point of view. But reading the whole poem, they will find out
that the title can lead them to a wrong impression if they failed to read the
entire literary piece. Its essence seemed to be the other way around.
II.
DICTION
Angela
Manalang Gloria used “Filipinized” English which made the poem easy to
decipher as her choice of words and phrases is the kind which everyone could
relate. The author shares her experience to the readers as to how it feels to
be left and haunted by a ghost of a person you love.
III.
TONE AND MOOD
Without
reading the entire poem, everyone would conclude that the author is the one directly
speaking to a subject who has already passed away. But it’s ironic that the
ghost is actually the one speaking to the one he had left. A kind of experience shared
in this literary piece is the feeling of being haunted by the memory of your
loved one, telling you not to forget him throughout your existence.
IV.
STRUCTURE
The
poem is composed of three quatrains, using the rhyme scheme abcb-defe-ghih in
which the second and last line of the quatrain rhyme with each other. The
author often uses the literary technique “enjambment” in which the sense of a
line runs over the succeeding line.
e.g.
I shall haunt you, O my lost one, as
the twilight
haunts a grieving bamboo trail
The poem has no strict meter and
when read, its rhythm obviously conveys a melancholic and gloomy atmosphere.
V.
IMAGERY &
SYMBOLISM
There are significant words used
in the poem which carry its meaning.
Words
|
Denotation
|
Connotation
|
twilight
|
time
after sunset
|
feeling of being haunted
|
dusk
|
time
after the day and before night
|
darkness, loneliness, gloom
|
rain
|
shower
from the sky
|
tears,
crying, grief
|
champakas
|
flowers
used in funeral
|
spirit
of the dead
|
Bamboo Trail |
Dusk |
Angela Manalang-Gloria has drawn
concrete pictures and images which set up the mood and atmosphere of the poem.
“Twilight” and “dusk” suggest a time of the day which could be associated with
darkness, gloom and death. The “bamboo trail” as a setting in a countryside reminds
of a place perfect for solitude and given a description as “grieving”, it
conveys a scene which is dark and eerie. “Wild champakas” as flowers used in
funerals imply the loss and death of a loved one and its scent that haunt the
ones they have left. “Melody of rain” connotes the sound of weeping or crying
and literally, the sound of the falling rain which laments with your
grief-stricken emotions.
VI. IMAGINATIVE METAPHOR
I
shall haunt you, O my lost one, as the twilight
Haunts a grieving
bamboo trail,
- The lines use simile as a figurative language. The way the ghost haunts the author is compared to a twilight which haunts a bamboo trail.
- Personification is also used as the twilight haunts and the bamboo trail grieves.
- Apostrophe is also applied to the calling of a “lost one”.
Dusk will peer into your
Window,
tragic-eyed and still,
And
unbidden startle you into remembrance
With its hand upon the sill.
- These lines again used personification. The tragic-eyed dusk will peer and startle you with its hand upon the sill of the window.
You
shall not forget, for I am past forgetting.
- This is a paradox since the lines appear to be contradictory but it’s true in fact.
You shall not forget, for I am past
forgetting
I
shall come to you again
You shall not forget. Dusk will peer into
your
Window,
tragic-eyed and still,
- The poem also used repetition.
VII.
ANALYSIS BY STANZA
First Stanza
The
point of view seems to be coming from the dead person rather than the one who
has been left grieving. The emotions dominant in this stanza are grief and
lamentation. The ghost feels so much lonely from the pain of being separated to
his loved one and because of that, he continually “haunts” the woman through appearing
in her strange dreams.
Second Stanza
The
ghost tells the woman not to forget him and if ever she does, he will remind
her through the light of stars in the night, scent of wild champakas and the
melody of the falling rain. It is evident that the ghost definitely does not
want to be forgotten by the one he loves.
Third Stanza
The
ghost has a firm belief that the woman will not forget him. And he would not
definitely let it happen because he would still do everything for the woman to
remember him. It appears that the ghost could not forget the tragedy
that happened.
VIII.
OVER-ALL ESSENCE OF
THE POEM
Angela
Manalang Gloria composed a poem which tells and describes the feeling of being
haunted. To create such effect in the point of view of the poem, she made the
ghost as the persona instead of herself. This poem merely conveys the true
emotions of ghosts which feel the pain and loneliness of being separated to
his beloved. Moreover, it is also dominant in the poem that the dead
does not want to be forgotten and he would do everything just to make them
remembered by their existing loved ones.