Analysis of ‘Poem at Thirty-Nine’ by Alice Walker

Summary

The video script is a deep analysis of Alice Walker's poem 'at 39,' which reflects on the author's memories and relationship with her father. The poem is characterized by a nostalgic tone, a first-person narrative, and a free verse structure that mirrors the sporadic chain of thought. The analysis highlights the themes of loss, regret, and familial love, with a mournful tone that gradually shifts to a more celebratory one, as the speaker acknowledges her father's influence on her life and her growth into a woman he would be proud of. The poem's use of personal pronouns and simple language creates an intimate connection with the reader, while the imagery of finance suggests the hardship her father faced. The speaker's respect for her father's wisdom is evident in her adoption of his values, particularly in handling money and truth-telling. The poem also explores the idea of escaping a difficult life and the speaker's success in doing so, as well as the potential metaphorical meaning behind cooking and feeding others, possibly alluding to her activism. The analysis concludes by noting the poem's relevance to themes of childhood, loss, regret, nostalgia, memories, and familial love, making it a fitting choice for examination in an English literature context.

Takeaways

• 📜 The poem 'at 39' by Alice Walker is a personal reflection on her life and her relationship with her father, written when she was 39 years old.
• 🎭 The poem establishes a nostalgic and mournful tone, indicating a sense of loss and regret, as the speaker misses her deceased father.
• 👤 The use of first-person narrative creates an intimate connection between the reader and the speaker, sharing Alice Walker's personal experiences.
• 💭 The poem's structure, with its broken lines and lack of a set rhyme scheme, mirrors the speaker's struggle to express her emotions and memories.
• 💰 The poem introduces a semantic field of finance, suggesting that money was a burden and a symbol of hardship in the speaker's life and her father's life.
• 👨 The father is portrayed as a caring figure who taught the speaker about the importance of money management, hoping for a better life for his daughter.
• 🌟 The father's influence is seen in the speaker's life, as she respects his advice and follows his teachings, even opening a savings account in high school.
• 🔥 The poem uses the metaphor of cooking to describe the father's passion and energy, as well as his generosity in sharing good food, which the speaker has inherited.
• 🌱 The speaker's life is depicted as varied and exciting, a contrast to her father's more mundane existence, indicating she has escaped the life he knew.
• 🔁 The poem includes repetition of the phrase 'how I miss my father,' emphasizing the depth of the speaker's longing and the significance of her father's influence.
• 📚 The speaker's achievements and the activities she engages in, such as cooking, writing, and chopping wood, are seen as a continuation of her father's legacy and values.
• 🔮 The final stanza suggests a sense of regret that the father did not live to see the full woman the speaker became, but also a belief that he would be proud of her independence and accomplishments.

Q & A

What is the significance of the poem's title 'At 39' by Alice Walker?

The title 'At 39' signifies that Alice Walker wrote the poem when she was 39 years old, which sets the context for the poem as a reflection on her life and memories at that age.

How does the poem establish a mournful or regretful tone in the first stanza?

The poem establishes a mournful or regretful tone through phrases like 'how I miss my father' and 'I wish he had not been so tired when I was born,' indicating a sense of loss and longing.

What is the significance of the first-person narrative in creating an intimate poem?

The first-person narrative creates an intimate poem by allowing Alice Walker to share her personal experiences and emotions directly with the reader, making the poem more relatable and emotionally engaging.

How does the use of broken lines in the poem reflect Alice Walker's struggle to express herself?

The broken lines can be seen as a reflection of Alice Walker's struggle to express her emotions and memories, suggesting that her thoughts and feelings are complex and difficult to articulate.

What is the semantic field of finance or monetary imagery in the poem, and what does it suggest about the narrator's life?

The semantic field of finance or monetary imagery includes words like 'deposit slips,' 'checks,' and 'savings accounts.' It suggests that money was a burden for the narrator and her father, indicating a life of hardship and financial struggle.

How does the father's teaching about money and its importance reflect his caring nature?

The father's teaching about money and its importance shows his caring nature as he wants his daughter to learn how to handle money wisely, so she can escape the difficult life he knew.

What does the phrase 'telling the truth did not always mean a beating' reveal about the father's values and their relationship?

The phrase reveals that the father valued truth, even though it sometimes led to conflict and discipline. It suggests an honest and open relationship between the father and daughter, despite the challenges they faced.

What is the significance of the euphemism 'before the end' in the poem?

The euphemism 'before the end' is used to refer to the time before the father's death. It suggests that it is difficult for Alice Walker to accept or say aloud that her father is gone, indicating the depth of her grief and loss.

How does the poem's tone shift from regretful to celebratory?

The tone shifts from regretful to celebratory as Alice Walker reflects on her father's positive influence on her life, her own achievements, and the qualities they shared. This shift reflects a transition from mourning to honoring and celebrating her father's memory and their bond.

What is the symbolism of the father cooking 'like a person dancing in a yoga meditation'?

The symbolism of the father cooking 'like a person dancing in a yoga meditation' suggests a combination of energy, passion, and focus. It paints a picture of the father's cooking as an art form, and implies that he took great care and joy in preparing food for his family.

How does Alice Walker's life and the way she lives it reflect her father's influence and values?

Alice Walker's life, including her cooking, writing, chopping wood, and staring into the fire, reflects her father's influence and values. She has embraced the importance of truth, financial wisdom, and generosity, and has carried these values into her own life and work.

What is the structure of the poem, and how does it reflect the poem's themes and content?

The poem is written in free verse with no rhyme scheme and has unequal stanzas. This structure reflects the poem's themes of memories and a chain of thought, as the poem moves from one memory to another in a sporadic and unstructured manner, mirroring the process of reminiscing.

Outlines

00:00

📚 Reflections on Fatherhood and Childhood

The first paragraph introduces the poem 'at 39' by Alice Walker, which is read in preparation for an English literature exam. The title suggests a nostalgic tone, as the narrator, Alice Walker, reflects on her memories with her father at the age of 39. The poem begins with a mournful tone, expressing a sense of loss and longing for her father, who has passed away. The use of first-person narrative creates an intimate setting, allowing the reader to engage with Walker's personal experience. The poem explores themes of financial hardship, the importance of money management, and the father's caring nature. It also touches on the honesty within their relationship, despite potential conflicts, and the father's influence on Alice's life, including her values and understanding of finance.

05:01

🍲 Celebrating Life and Legacy

The second paragraph delves into the father's character, highlighting his cooking as a form of art and passion, likened to a person dancing in a yoga meditation. This vivid imagery suggests a celebration of life and the father's generosity in sharing good food. The paragraph also discusses the narrator's own cooking style, which mirrors her father's, indicating that she has embraced the values and lifestyle he wished for her. The father's influence is further emphasized through the metaphor of escaping the mundane life he knew. The paragraph also contemplates the father's potential admiration for the woman Alice has become, despite not being able to witness her full journey. The use of euphemism 'before the end' to refer to her father's death reflects the difficulty in accepting his passing.

10:02

🔥 Fire as a Symbol of Continuity

The third paragraph focuses on the symbolism of fire, suggesting that the father's spirit and values live on within Alice. It lists her various activities—cooking, writing, chopping wood, and staring into the fire—as a testament to her independence and the diversity of her life. The paragraph reflects on the regret that her father did not live to see all her accomplishments, but it also emphasizes the enduring influence of his teachings and personality on her life. The poem's structure is free verse with no rhyme scheme, mirroring the sporadic nature of memories and thoughts. The tone of the poem shifts from regretful to celebratory, ultimately focusing on the narrator's growth and the pride her father would have felt for her achievements.

Keywords

💡Nostalgia

Nostalgia is a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations. In the video, nostalgia is a key theme as Alice Walker reflects on her memories with her father, indicating a yearning for the past and a sense of loss due to her father's absence.

💡Loss

Loss refers to the state of having lost something or someone, often implying a sense of grief or sadness. The poem 'at 39' by Alice Walker is imbued with a tone of loss, as the speaker expresses missing her father and the impact of his absence on her life.

💡First-Person Narrative

A first-person narrative is a mode of storytelling where the narrator is a character within the story, often the protagonist, and the story is told from their point of view. In the poem, the use of a first-person narrative creates an intimate connection between the reader and Alice Walker, allowing the reader to experience her personal memories and emotions.

💡Monetary Imagery

Monetary imagery refers to the use of financial or money-related symbols and concepts within a piece of literature to convey a certain theme or message. In the poem, the mention of deposit slips, checks, and savings accounts suggests the financial struggles the family faced, highlighting the hardship and the father's efforts to provide for his daughter.

💡Escape

Escape, in the context of the poem, symbolizes the desire to break free from a difficult or undesirable situation. Alice Walker's father taught her about financial management as a means for her to escape the life of hardship he knew, indicating his wish for a better future for his daughter.

💡Truth

Truth, in the poem, is presented as something valuable and important, even when it is difficult to hear or accept. The father's acceptance of his daughter's truths, despite the grief they may have caused him, suggests a deep level of honesty and respect within their relationship.

💡Euphemism

An euphemism is a mild or indirect term used in place of one considered to be harsh, blunt, or unpleasant. The use of 'before the end' as a euphemism for 'before he died' indicates the difficulty Alice Walker has in confronting her father's death, reflecting the emotional complexity of the topic.

💡Celebration of Life

Celebration of life refers to the act of honoring and commemorating the positive aspects and accomplishments of a person's life after they have passed away. In the latter part of the poem, there is a shift from a tone of regret to a celebration of the father's life, particularly his passion for cooking and his influence on the speaker's life.

💡Independence

Independence is the state of being free from the control or influence of others. The poem reflects the speaker's independence through her varied life experiences and her ability to take on tasks such as cooking, writing, and chopping wood, which she likens to the values and skills passed down from her father.

💡Fire as a Symbol

In literature, fire is often used as a symbol for various concepts such as passion, warmth, or life force. In the poem, staring into the fire could symbolize the enduring influence of the father on the speaker's life, suggesting that his spirit or the 'spark' that he had lives on within her.

💡Free Verse

Free verse is a style of poetry that does not use a regular meter or rhyme scheme. The poem 'at 39' is written in free verse, which reflects the sporadic and unstructured nature of memories, fitting the theme of reminiscing on past experiences.

Highlights

The poem 'At 39' by Alice Walker is a personal reflection on her relationship with her father, written at the age of 39.

The poem establishes a mournful tone, indicating a theme of loss and the narrator's longing for her deceased father.

The use of first-person narrative creates an intimate and personal poem, sharing Alice Walker's experiences.

The poem is a chain of thought, reflecting the struggle to express emotions about a deeply emotional topic.

The poem uses a semantic field of finance and monetary imagery, suggesting a financial burden and hardship in the narrator's life.

Alice Walker's father is portrayed as a caring figure who taught her the importance of handling money to escape a difficult life.

The poem reveals an honest relationship between the narrator and her father, despite occasional conflict and discipline.

The use of the euphemism 'before the end' indicates the difficulty Alice Walker has in accepting her father's death.

The poem juxtaposes the harshness of their past with a celebratory tone, focusing on the joy and beauty of her father's cooking.

Alice Walker's admiration for her father's cooking is mirrored in her own approach to cooking, highlighting the bond and similarities between them.

The metaphor of the 'seasoning of her life not the same way twice' implies that she has escaped the mundane life her father knew.

The poem suggests that Alice Walker's life is full of enthusiasm, passion, and a willingness to help others, traits she shares with her father.

The poem reflects on the narrator's achievements and independence, with a hint of regret that her father did not live to see her full potential.

The act of cooking and sharing food is a symbol of Alice Walker's connection to her father and her desire to emulate his generosity.

The poem explores the themes of childhood, loss, regret, nostalgia, memories, and familial love, making it a rich choice for literary analysis.

The poem is structured as free verse with no rhyme scheme, reflecting the sporadic and unstructured nature of memories and thoughts.

The poem's tone shifts from regretful to celebratory, reflecting Alice Walker's complex emotions towards her father and her life.

The use of imagery, such as cooking and staring into the fire, symbolizes the enduring influence and spirit of her father within her life.

Transcripts

so I'm going to read through poem at 39

by Alice Walker this is in preparation

for your Edexcel I do CSD English

literature

paper one exam for Section a so having

read the poem a number of times you'll

hopefully be able to work out that the

title is quite simply saying that Alice

Walker wrote this at 39 so we know the

narrator is an adult so it creates quite

a nostalgic tone as she's clearly

looking back on memories of her time

with her father stanza one how I miss my

father I wish he had not been so tired

when I was born so we immediately have a

mournful or regretful tone established

through the phrases of how I miss I wish

so we instantly have this theme of loss

as well her father has clearly died the

fact that she misses him pretty much

tells us that not just in this stanza

but throughout the poem you'll notice a

continual use of a personal pronoun so

it's a first-person narrative and that

creates quite an intimate poem this is

Alice Walker's personal experience that

she's sharing with the reader again not

just in this poem it's re not just in

this stanza but throughout the poem is

the use of enjoyment this whole poem

really is a chain of thought you could

argue that the in German also presents

or mirrors her struggle to express

herself as well and this is obviously an

emotional topic and so you can imagine

it's quite difficult for her to almost

kind of talk through those memories

which could be expressed by the broken

lines so for stanza to writing deposit

slips and checks I think of him he

taught me how this is the form he must

have said the way it has done

I learned to see bits of paper as a way

to escape the life he knew and even in

high school

had a savings account so again we have

continuation of in German this is just a

continuation of her memory if you look

at though the words that are highlighted

in pink deposit slips checks bits of

paper savings accounts this is a

semantic field of finance or a monetary

imagery and that suggests that money was

a burden for them and again suggests

hardship in her life and her father's

life going back to stanza one this could

link to the fact that she says I wish he

had not been so tired when I was born

this implies that he had to work a lot

and then linking to stanza two the fact

that we have this monetary imagery

suggests that he may have worked a lot

and also probably for for little money

as well and so it wasn't an easy life

for her father but he's clearly a very

caring father as well because he's

trying to teach her how to handle money

and the importance of it so that she can

escape the life he knew the fact that we

use escape he you'll notice I've circled

it in red again suggests that he wants a

much more for his daughter so this is a

loving father and again this just adds

to the nostalgia and adds to the regret

because she's clearly missing him you'll

notice with his instructions this is the

form the weight has done these are

simple sentences and simple language

which would represent or mimic really

how a father would speak to a child

especially about a topic like finance

which could be quite complicated so it

really just reflects the way he would

communicate with her so that she would

understand the advice that he gives and

she clearly respects her father's advice

because by the time she's in high school

she has a savings account so he already

has had a positive influence on her

he taught me that telling the truth did

not always mean a beating though many of

my truths must have grieved him before

the end I've just circled before the end

in red because it should be on the next

line you'll notice in your anthology

it's written a little different so

firstly the fact that he says telling

the truth won't always mean a beating

indicates that he does value truth and

the fact that Alice Walker admits that

her truths must have grieved him

suggests that even though there was

conflict in their relationship they did

have a very honest relationship so again

I would argue even though and we'll come

to this in a moment he would beat her

sometimes and that's her truth grieved

him I think they had a very close

relationship despite of that and again

that hence why she's writing this poem

and why there seems to be this regretful

tone also indicating her lover her

father is the use of the euphemism the

end what she really means there is

before he died but the use of euphemism

to suggest that it's it was a difficult

or it's difficult for her to even accept

that now or even say those words aloud

even now so it's difficult for her to

come to terms with his death hence why

she says instead before the end so he

must have been a strict parent did not

always mean a beating suggest that he

did sometimes give her a beating so I'm

sure there are times when they they

butted heads but I don't think that

takes away from how close they were I

wonder if her truths that grieved him

are linked to the novel that she wrote a

color purple there are some ideas there

about mail treatment of women that could

have hurt him maybe he was offended by

that and that's maybe something that you

could look into yourself the following

stands there juxtaposes with the

violence and the harshness of the

previous stanza

how I miss my father he cooked like a

person dancing in a yoga meditation and

craved the voluptuous sharing of good

food so we have repetition I haven't

written that down but please do in your

anthology repetition if you notice in

the first line of the poem we have how I

miss my father we have it again this

time with an exclamation mark to mirror

just how greatly she misses him however

I would argue that the tone changes at

this point we've seen kind of a

regretful tone a mournful tone before I

would argue this is much more

celebratory now he cooked like a person

dancing in a yoga meditation it's a

really interesting image and definitely

oxymoronic I'm not sure how you can

dance which is full of movement and

energy and still look like you're in a

yoga meditation which creates images of

being very still but I guess he's trying

to say that he was beautiful to watch

when he was cooking he must have been

full of energy and passion yet really

really focused so he obviously took his

cooking really seriously and she

highlights his generosity as well he

craved to share his good food so we have

this really positive image again of her

father now I look and cook just like him

my brain light tossing this and that

into the pot seasoning none of my life

the same way twice happy to feed whoever

strays my way the assonance in look and

cook represents the similarities between

Walker and her father and then the rest

of this stanza really highlights that

similarity so she the seasoning the

seasoning of her life not the same way

twice is a metaphor implying that she's

she has actually escaped the life he

knew if you think back to the second

stanza he wanted her to escape this life

the first stanza says he was always

tired so his life must have been really

mundane he must

worked really long hours for not much

tool and it suggests that her life is

really exciting and that she has escaped

that way of living but and she's full of

enthusiasm and passion like her father

as well when he cooked and she also is

happy to feed whoever strays her way I

wonder if she means that in the sense of

actually literally feeding others or if

she's linking that to the work she has

done as an activist and how she has

always sought to help the most

vulnerable in our society so is this

also a metaphor for helping others that

are most in need he would have grown to

admire the woman I've become cooking

writing chopping wood staring into the

fire so the so what first of all again

is there is a little bit of regret there

he would have grown to admire it

suggests that he may not have admired

the woman that she became maybe because

he didn't get to see that the full woman

that she became so there's a regret

there that he didn't get to see all of

her achievements but the listing here

emphasizes her independence and the

variety in her life as well cooking

writing chopping wood and then she ends

in with staring into the fire and you

could argue fire symbolizes that her

father still lives on that spark that he

had still lives within her that's why

she's so similar the things that she

does the values that she has still has

come from her father and lives in her

but it'd be interesting to see what you

think that might symbolize as well so

looking overall at the poem it's free

verse there's no rhyme scheme you'll

notice that the stanzas one two three

four five six six stanzas all unequal I

think that reflects the check chain of

thought we've got this kind of

almost memories sparking another memory

so there's no there's no rhythm to it

it's it's sporadic if you like she's

staring into this fire and she's kind of

lost got lost in this memory that sparks

another and sparks another so there

isn't really supposed to be a rhythm

it's supposed to really meet be more of

a train of thought I've drawn a pink

line to indicate where I think the tone

changes I think initially it's quite

regretful but I do think it becomes much

more celebratory towards the end she

gets to celebrate how wonderful what a

wonderful cook he was how she has become

very similar to him and then really

celebrating the woman she's become and

the fact that she knows he would be so

proud of her so the themes if we zoom in

here themes this is obviously important

because you don't know what question

you're given or the theme you'll be

given to focus on if you get a question

that asks you to pick a poem that

focuses on childhood or loss regret

nostalgia memories or familial love then

this would be a great choice