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Group 1: Poem Analysis

The poem "For Her Surgery" by Jack Butler describes the sadness of a couple coming to terms with the wife's hysterectomy rendering her infertile. The persona addresses the moon, a symbol for his wife, on the night before her surgery. He reflects on the loss of their ability to have children through imagery of halted natural cycles. In the final stanza, the persona bids goodbye to their hopes and future, released from parental duties but left grieving under the watchful moon.

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Venelen Blaesell Ann Cepeda
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67 views20 pages

Group 1: Poem Analysis

The poem "For Her Surgery" by Jack Butler describes the sadness of a couple coming to terms with the wife's hysterectomy rendering her infertile. The persona addresses the moon, a symbol for his wife, on the night before her surgery. He reflects on the loss of their ability to have children through imagery of halted natural cycles. In the final stanza, the persona bids goodbye to their hopes and future, released from parental duties but left grieving under the watchful moon.

Uploaded by

Venelen Blaesell Ann Cepeda
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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GROUP 1

POEM ANALYSIS
FOR HER SURGERY

BY JACK BUTLER
BACKGROUND OF THE AUTHOR
JACK BUTLER
- An American poet and novelist
-May 8,1944, in Alligator Mississippi
-A writing coach
-Pulitizer prize and the Pen/Faulkner
-His poetry has been published in several
anthologies
FOR HER SURGERY
BY JACK BUTLER

Over the city the moon rides in mist,


scrim scarred with faint rainbow.
Two days till Easter. The thin clouds run slow, slow,
the wind bells bleed the quietest
of possible musics to the dark lawn.
All possibility we will have children is gone.
I raise a glass half water, half alcohol,
to that light come full again.
Inside, you sleep, somewhere below the pain.
Down at the river, there is a tall
ghost tossing flowers to dark water—
jessamine, rose, and daisy, salvia lyrata . . .
Oh goodbye, goodbye to bloom in the white blaze
of moon on the river, goodbye
to creek joining the creek joining the river, the axil, the
Y,
goodbye to the Yes of two Ifs in one phrase . . .
Children bear children. We are grown,
and time has thrown us free under the timeless moon.
PERSONA AND
ADDRESSEE
• First Person Point of View
• The Persona and the Addressee is in a
relationship
PERSONA & ADDRESSEE
Persona Addressee

• Male/Man • Female/Woman

• I, We, Us • Her, We, Us, The moon

• In Relationship with the • In Relationship with the Persona


Addressee
MESSAGE
• Refers to a period when Jack Butler’s third wife was forced to have a
hysterectomy by fibroids.
• The image of “the moon” represents the female element and stands
for the mysterious “her” of the title.
• The female has been rendered infertile by this surgery
• The starting phrase of the stanza “over the city” and the word
“scrim” takes on a new meaning.
• The end of the first stanza brings out the full poignancy of this
image.
• The sadness of being “scarred,” is rendered by the fact that they are
ashamed at this failure.
• The natural imagery and also of pregnancy is seen in every
stanza of the poem.
• -“com[ing] full again,”
• -“flowers,”
• -“bloom,”
• “Easter” – the time of vernal rebirth and resurrection is
interspersed with an acrid undertone.
• Words and phrases like “slow, slow”, the wind “bleeds”, the
lawn is “dark”; show that nature too laments like the grieving
couple.
• “Jessamine, rose” – are traditionally used as wedding
garlands and are signs of purity
• “Dais[ies]” are the symbol of innocence. It is also
given to new mothers, but it indicates that the
recipient is skilled at keeping secrets.
• “Salvia lyrata”, is a lyre-leaf sage well-known for its
medicinal properties.
• The final stanza is about a blind suffering
• In the final line, the maternal aspect is removed from
the “moon.”
• She was addressed as “timeless” and is thus destined
to remain ever virginal and detached.
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
Three figurative language used in the poem:

-Personification
-Hyperbole
-Assonance
Personification
“The thin clouds run slow,slow”

Hyperbole
“The wind bells bleed the quietest”

Assonance
“We are grown, and time has thrown us free under
the timeless moon”
FORM AND STRUCTURE
- Sestet (6 lines) sometimes it is called Sixain

Length: every stanza has 6 lines


: it has 3 stanza

Rhyme Scheme: Sestet 1 - ABBACD


Sestes 2 - EFFEGH
Sestet 3 - IJJIKL
Enjambment- when there is no written or natural
pause at the end of a poetic line, so that the
word-flow carries over to the next line.

“Two days till Easter. The thin clouds run slow,


slow,
the wind bells bleed the quietest
of possible musics to the dark lawn.’’
“I raise a glass half water, half alcohol,
to that light come full again.”

“Down at the river, there is a tall


ghost tossing flowers to dark water—”
“Oh goodbye, goodbye to bloom in the white
blaze
of moon on the river, goodbye
to creek joining the creek joining the river, the
axil, the Y,
goodbye to the Yes of two Ifs in one phrase . . .”
Placement - the way words and poetic
lines are placed on the page of a poem.

Placement of the poem “For her Surgery”


- simple and it is one of the most
common placements in writing a poem
THAT’S THE END OF OUR REPORT

THANK YOU FOR LISTENING :)

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