Instruction: As mentioned in our stylistics class, I want you to read the following two

poems and do the following: Literary criticism and stylistics. Present first your
interpretation of the poem as a whole you have to pick a line from the poem as a proof
of your interpretation and then do the following:

 Present your idea why the poem is entitled so.

 What is the emotion of the writer while writing the poem?
 What does the writer wanted to convey?
 How the writer wants you to see the character?
 How do you describe the writer?
 What is the writer’s writing style.

Sample:

Name:
Course and year:
Subject:

Poem: Woman of Many Words

Interpretation:

The poem……………. I can say this as it is clearly stated in the line, “…….” in
this it is a proof that….

Stylistics:

As I did my reading and interpretation I began to understand why the poem is

entitled as …. it is because……

I believe that the writer is sad, happy, etc (it’s up to you) and so on and so forth..

Woman of many words

by: Merlie M. Alunan

She loved him with words, torrential.
She threw the words down from skyscrapers,
cathedral spires, belfries of country churches,
thatched eaves of peasant homes. The words
tumbled and clattered and zoomed and slithered
and flew over tin roofs, tops of trees, umbrellas,
they tickled the ears of children and dogs
and elephants in the zoo, and made them dance
and wriggle and prance, they rained down
on rivers and ponds and oceans, rode
on the backs of turtles and seals, and the whale
heard them and echoed them in arctic waters
cold and deep, and some words fell on the sand
for snails to nibble and crabs to drag to their lairs.

Her words would not stop coming, so now

his ears were full of them, clogging his nose,
cramming his pockets, his shirts ballooned
with them, they squished in his shoes, they littered
his bed, the carpet, the table where he worked,
every cup in his kitchen brimmed with them.
They fell from the trees when he took a walk,
every flower he passed called them out to him,
even the birds could not stop chattering
as they flew from earth to tree to earth again,
the red dragonflies spelled her words in the wind,
and the fireflies blinked them all night long.
 Still her words came, an endless joyous rain,
he swam in its flood, he filled his mouth
with them, and still she loved him and loved him,
her words flooded his mind and stole his sleep.

Alone Drinking Under the Moon

by: Li Po translated: David Bowles

Amongst the flowers I am alone with my pot of wine drinking by myself; then lifting my cup I
asked the moon to drink with me, its reflection and mine in the wine cup, just the three of us;
then I sigh for the moon cannot drink, and my shadow goes emptily along with me never saying
a word; with no other friends here, I can but use these two for company; in the time of
happiness, I too must be happy with all around me; I sit and sing and it is as if the moon
accompanies me; then if I dance, it is my shadow that dances along with me; while still not
drunk, I am glad to make the moon and my shadow into friends, but then when I have drunk
too much, we all part; yet these are friends I can always count on these who have no emotion
whatsoever; I hope that one day we three will meet again, deep in the Milky Way.