Here By Grace Paley

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“Here” The poem Here, written by Grace Paley, is a very loving and emotional. She did a wonderful job in this poem and makes it easy for her readers to understand the true meanings of the text. Paley uses many literary elements to get her readers to understand her true emotions expressed in the poem. Some of the literary elements that are clear in this poem are imagery and tone. The literary elements make it clear to understand that the meaning has to do with living life and being in love. Grace Paley shows that true love will never die in life no matter how long or hard your life is. As one begins to read this poem, it is very clear that Grace Paley uses imagery. The first three lines are completely relaying on imagery to portray its meaning. The reader is given an old woman sitting in her garden thinking to herself. The description that is given is painful yet honest. The woman describes herself as “heavy breasted” and “a nicely mapped face”. These images portray aging and heavy weight. As the reader, one can wonder if the poet is happy with her image or if she is dissatisfied. “At last a woman in the old style”, this line presents a women finally feeling old and trying to cope with her age. Next Paley speaks about the women, “sitting stout thighs apart under a big skirt”. This imagery also portrays heavy weight and size. This is the image that stays in the readers’ minds throughout the whole poem. As the poem continues you are introduced to another character, the speaker’s husband. As the speaker describes her husband’s actions it shows the readers that the speaker knows every move her husband makes. The image one may get from this, is an old couple that knows each other like the back of their hand and are still deeply in love. Imagery has helped to show ageing and physical appearance in this poem. This literary elements helps the readers see that the

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