Essay Questions

What are some of the techniques used by the narrator in the poems?

There are three distinct techniques used here, namely repetition, stream of consciousness and non- chronological order. The first one is obvious since the repeated phrases and sentences are often placed inside boxes, as to attract attention to them. These sentences represent the main ideas the narrator wants to transmit and are used as ways of reflecting. While the poems are linked with the narrator’s age, the events described in the poems are not chronologically described. In fact, at times, it can become hard to keep track of the events described mainly because they appear to have no internal logic. The third technique used is the stream of consciousness, often associated with modernism. Because of this technique, the events and the thoughts of the narrator become one and they are presented as being the same, often in a continuous and uninterrupted manner.

Describe the structure of the collection.

“My Life” is nowadays called as being a form of experimental poetry, an autobiographical form of writing. When the collection first came out, the author was thirty-seven and as such, there were thirty seven poems, each composed out of thirty-seven lines. Almost ten years later, new poems were added by the general structure was maintains, the author composing one poem for each year she lived. The age the narrator had in the poem is closely linked with the events described and it becomes the starting point for every poem in the collection.

What is the Language School?

The Language School is a literary movement and the author is one of its most well-known members and also one of its original founders. The Language School tried to use words in more creative ways and innovative manners in order to create poems and other forms of literary creations. Because of their form, the writings following the Language School principles can be at times hard to place and characterize. Their writings are often times political and revolutionary, pushing the reader to ask for change and to demand a better life. While this form of writing often is used in an autobiographical way, it is not employed as confessional and in relation to feelings. Instead, it is more often linked with narration and events.