Literary Criticism

My Grandmother's Sweater

The crispness of the morning
awakens the sleeping robins.
The sun peeks out from the horizon
as I put on my grandmother's sweater.

I turn and face the body
wasted of life
tired eyes looking back
full of pain.

The other day my sister asked me,
"Which way does the grass grow?"
Down into the ground, I think
as I snuggle deeper into my grandmother's sweater.

"What's life all about?" she asked me next.
Love. Death. Pain. I think,
as they lay her into the ground.

I feel nothing
as the sun shines down
upon the crosses in a row
only comfort in my grandmother's sweater.

~~ My Grandmother's Sweater is a free-verse poem because of lines that are not rhymed in every stanzas of the poem. This makes the writer do his own without any limits on doing this work. For example, the first stanza contains of pattern; morning(a), robins(b), horizon(9) and sweater(10). Just like the so on stanzas don't have their rhyming. The poem also of doesn't have any pattern when it comes to the syllables in every lines of stanzas. For example,"The crispness of the morning" in 7 syllables,"awakens the sleeping robins" in 8 syllables, "The sun peeks out from the horizon" in 9 syllables and "as I put on my grandmother's sweater" in 10 syllables. As well as to the second,third,fourth and fifth stanza has different syllables for every line.

   The voice that is being used in the poem is the fist person point of view because of "I" that is being said in very stanza. My Grandmother's Sweater falls on narrative poem for it is telling a story and obviously, the writer used the first person point of view therefore the poem is all about telling s story behind him/her.It is narrative poem because he/she narrates a story in the poem.Obviously from the point of view "I" of the writer it signifies that he/she telling a story.
   
   The theme of the poem is sadness. it can be seen all throughout the poem the sorrowful meaning of My Grandmother's Sweater. It is a sorrowful moving on from the death of their grandmother. The first stanza still not fully explaining what is really happening on the said poem. On the second stanza, the sorrowful meaning of him/her is reflecting now to the readers. On the second line of the 3rd stanza, "Which way does the grass grow?" makes the reader confused what's the meaning of that question. Together with the 4th stanza, the whole of it seems narrating his/her life now. Maybe the "Love, Death and Pain" in the poem is all about their past and their present plight of their life. Their past that is full of love because of the existence of their grandmother and the surprisingly death of their grandmother to their life makes the whole enjoyment stop and the pain that they feel right now in the present time.