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Paper 1 (2007) poem – sample essay 1

Note: The original essay was four sheets, the last one with a small bit on the back. Everything has been typed as written with the exception of items that the writer crossed out.

Lucinda Roy’s poem “Points of View” explores the relationship we in between humans and water. Water is an essential element of life, and cannot survive without it. This poem emphasizes the importance of water, but also speaks of the importance of the way in which we relate to it. This key idea is emphasized by the title of the poem, “Points of View,” which draws the reader’s attention to the differences the way water is treated by the speaker and by the women and children about whom she writes. Imagery and specific diction are crucial to the way this poem is understood, as they create very specific images and emotions in the mind of the reader. The form of the poem enhances the juxtaposition of the points of view, and creates a very clear separation between the two. All of this combines to create a poem that is as vivid and rich as the water itself.

“Points of View” is divided into two stanzas, each of considerable of length. The first stanza if a fourteen line depiction of women gathering water in a traditional way, from rivers and from wells. The essentiality of water to life is firmly established, and its powers explored. The second stanza is slightly longer (21 lines), and reveals the speaker’s relationship to water. The relationship is much more distant, and the juxtaposition of the two emphasizes this. The lack of rhyme in either stanza creates an almost somber and religious mood. This mood shows the seriousness of the subject, and imbues the poem with a sense of importance.

The first stanza begins with the phrase, “Even now.” This phrase highlights the fact that the traditional relationship with water is explored in this stanza is not a thing of the past. Rather, it is a relationship that can occur even in modern times. This places the responsibility on the individual; they are not forced into the modern way, and can have this idealized relationship if they seek it. The next phrase, “women bend to rivers / Or to wells” is the first indication of the respect that these women have for water. They come to it, and do not expect it to come to them. This phrase if repeated in line 7, and echoed in line 24, with “slow genuflections.” The use of the word “genuflections” adds another level of significance to this movement. The women bend to collect the water, but as they do so they make a sign of respect. This respect is so intense as to be almost to the level of worship.

In the second line, water is referred to as “life.” This metaphor is essential to our understanding of the poem. Water is depicted as powerful, as elemental, and as essential. This phrase enhances that depiction by literally calling water “life.” The women offer this life to those they love, thus ensuring that they will survive. Water is “carried home.” The use of the word “home” connects to the people and things mentioned in lines 3 and 4, which are common staples of a household. It also has the effect of making the water a member of the family. The first physical description of the water is found in lines 4-5: “Heavy with light / And the brief mosaics of the world.” This description provokes a clear emotion in the reader. For me, it recalled a memory in which I first discovered the weight of water. Water seems to be weightless, almost ephemeral until it is collect and carried. It does not seem as though it should be heavy, due to its clear color and the way it slips through the fingers. However, water is heavy. Because weight is often associated with importance, Roy’s description of the water as heavy emphasizes the great importance she places on it. Roy goes farther, to explain the reason for this weight. The water us “Heavy with light.” It is as if the water can capture the light and hold it, and this is what makes it heavy. The next phrase, “brief mosaics of the world” conjures a very specific image. I can see water being carried in a bucket, while it reflects flashes of the world around it. These tiny snatches of life are also contained in the water, and put together to form a mosaic. This image enhances the view of water as life, as it depicts water as containing life.

The final section of the first stanza speaks of the reflections found on the surface of a body of water. As the women collect the water, they see themselves reflected in its depths. This reflection is not only literal, but metaphorical, as the women are made to reflect on their own lives and purpose. The phrase, “And water sucks them in, / Catching the wild geometry of the soul / Tossing it onto a plane,” speaks of the power that water possesses. The women see themselves in only two dimensions, as the water tames their souls and reduces their “wild geometry” to a single plane. The tossing of the souls onto the plane also suggests water’s power to unify. Where before they were disparate and disjointed, they women are now on the same plane. The wells “brimming with women’s fluid faces” while evokes the idea that the women come together to the well and are equal they all engage in the same task. The alliteration of “fluid faces” draws emphasis to the connection between the two. The women see the reflections of their faces in the fluid water, but are themselves composed of water, causing “fluid faces” to have a double meaning. Water is depicted as “alive,” showing that it is life as much as it gives life. The women savour their reflections and the life that water brings forth in them, and then leave to continue their day. The gathering of water can be seen as the most important, spiritual, and calming moment of their days.

The second stanza begins with an abrupt change. The transition from the riverbeds and wells to a modern home is striking and even startling as the two disparate settings are juxtaposed. “From up here, what can I know of water?” This phrase emphasizes the distance from the source of water with which the speaker finds herself confronted. The next four lines (lines 16-19) reflect the artificiality of water found in a modern home. The use of the words “tamed,” “encased,” “quiet,” “contoured,” and “compartmentalize” all evoke a feeling of falseness. The water has been reduced from its natural state. It is no longer alive and a source of power, but empty and inanimate. The fact that the speaker serves it to “distant friends” enhances the feeling of artificiality. Unlike the women of the first stanza, who offer water to men, children, and elders, the speaker gives water not her loved ones but to people about whom she cares little. This distinction emphasizes the removal of water from its natural state of being.

A second transition occurs in the sixth line of the second stanza. This transition does not include a change in speaker, which is perhaps why it is not separated from the rest of the stanza, as the first transition (from the women by the rivers and the wells to the more modern woman) did. However, this transition is just as important. After describing her artificial separation from the essence of water, the speaker resolves to change her relationship with water altogether. “Tomorrow,” she says, “I must go again to find it.” She wishes to return to a more traditional relationship with this life-giving force. The use of the word “again” suggests that she was at one time as connected to water as the women she describes in the first stanza. She wants to go back in time (“swim in the rivers thick with time”) to become like them again. She then goes onto explain what she will see and do. She will “watch women / In slow genuflections ease water into round bowls.” This phrase contains two important word choices that serve to contrast this existence with the one described at the beginning of the second stanza. The word “ease” draws attention to “catch” (line 16), and shows the difference between the way the two treat water. The women by the river have a much greater respect for water than the modern woman, and are thus better able to appreciate the life it gives them. The “round bowls” contrast to the images of plumbing present in the second and third lines of this stanza. The bowls having a feeling of softness and the plumbing of hardness and harshness, which again reflects the disparate attitudes about water.

The next seven lines contain images of children, playing in the water. The boys are “river-blinded,” as their eyes are filled with the reflected light (here again a metaphor for life) of the river. The use of the word “element” in describing the water is also crucial, as it re-emphasizes the essential and important nature of water. The depiction of water droplets as “diamond-drops” is also significant. The alliteration and hyphenation of these two words firmly cements them together, and draws attention to the unique turn of phrase. By characterizing the water as diamonds, Roy simultaneously exhorts the beauty and value found in it. The children tell the speaker: “This is water.” It is as if she understands the nature of water for the first time. “This intense immersion,” she says. It is immersion not only in water but in life. She is baptized in life literally because of the newfound respect she has for it. She speaks of her “baptism” with relish, and it is clear she wants nothing more, and is anxious to begin her journey. In the final two lines she speaks of her ultimate conversion. She will become a “newly evolved fish.” She will be able to understand and appreciate water as only one who lives in water can. The water will become as essential to her as to a fish, and she will always respect its power and be grateful for its gift.

The main theme of the poem is not the necessity of water to life (though this is certainly emphasized), but the differences between a modern and a traditional view of water. The importance of this idea is evident from the beginning, as the poem is framed by its title: “Points of View.” For the women who gather their own water, water is more than a way to quench thirst. It is life, in its entirety. Modern women are distanced from nature, and recieve water (and thus life) artificially. This causes the life-spirit of the water to be diluted, as it is “tamed.” It no longer holds up a mirror to the world, but simply provides refreshment. The unnaturalness of this state of water is clearly shown in the phrase “I compartmentalize the beast in ice” (line 18). The “beast” is not meant to be tamed, and certainly not imprisoned in the squares of an ice-cube tray. The women of the first stanza are imbued with such respect for water that it borders on worship. They are able to see the beauty in the simple, and, by doing so, see that it is not so simple after all. On the other hand, the other “point of view” recieves her water distilled and reduced, and so cannot fully appreciate its beauty.

The somber tone and mood of the poem adds to its feeling of importance. However, it is eventually triumphant, as the speaker is able to see past her modernity and embrace the true power of water. By the final lines of the poem, elation and triumph breaks through the solemnity to uplift and inspire the reader. The speaker ends the poem free and alive, fully aware of the immense significance of the element from which she recieves life.