The Curse of her Beauty Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Curse of her Beauty - Essay ExampleThe womans contradictory appearing is conveyed through a serial of similes. She is old as ocean yet young as mornings. In spite of the womans contradictory appearance (which seems to foreshadow ambiguity), the observer takes great delight in her.Roach personifies the beauty of the stain through the womans characteristics (That dictum beauty walk on the wind and the sea). He speaks of nothing more about the woman early(a) than her physical beauty. Much like the poet, tourist know of nothing more than what meets their eyes (the rural areas physical beauty), which is eq to the womans physical appearance. The Caribbean is known to attract tourists with its lush vegetation and mild climate. However, Roach points out the lands deceptive subjugation of the lands beauty. In fact, the lands beauty taints its true image. Rather than seeing the land for what it truly is (a place enduring the black lashing of the sea spray), the poet is tantalized and shake up by kisses that cause him to envision a beautiful goddess (Love tinted that shore). As he realizes the goddesss true repulsive side, the poet finds out that there is more than what meets the eye.Reality sobers the poet. He is no longer intoxicated by the beauty of the land. ... In The Odyssey by Homer, Sirens coaxd sailors with their sweet hypnotic songs. Their songs detracted sailors from their careful journeys and caused them to crash their ships into the rocks. In its efforts to lure and trap unwary observers, the land produces an attractive woman who is similar to the sirens. In essence, the woman is the land. Normally, Roach uses the land as a metaphor for the struggle between Eurocentric hegemony (dominance) and Caribbean independence (Jennings 25). The evidence of dominance is shown in the first stanza. The trees are symbolic of the Caribbean people who endured much abuse from the Europeans (lashing sea spray) but remained strong. As an island-dweller who was f orced to conform to European studies (Breiner 113), Roach uses examples from his studies (the siren coast deceptive Sirens from Homers Odyssey). In addition, Roach struggles with the personal identity of the land (shown in the ambivalent view of the woman or land). In doing so, he denounces the history of the land while acknowledging its undeniable beauty and his love for it. In the end, the poem makes a full circle (back to the beginning) where the he reflects on the devastatingly true image of the shore. The only difference now is that remnants of his love accompany the brutalities of the lashing sea spray.Works CitedBreiner, Laurence A. An Introduction to West Indian Poetry. New York Cambridge University Press, 1998.Jennings, Lisa Gay. Renaissance Models for Caribbean Poets Identity, Authencity and the Early Modern Lyric Revisited. MS Thesis. Florida State University, 2005.