NEVER SAY NEVER

 An Analysis of a 21st Century Philippine Literature entitled

HOLD

By: Ivy Alvarez

Introduction

“Winners Never Quit, and Quitters Never Win"

 All of us have experienced different circumstances and hardships in life. The important thing here is that, we hold on because if we quit or surrender, then we will never win.  So for us to win our battles, we must never quit and have faith that we will overcome it.

 

Background

1.      Authorial Information

The  writer of the poem “hold" is Ivy Alvarez. She was born here in the Philippines but grew up in Tasmania, Australia. She studied at Tasmania University. She was featured in festivals, became an editor and received many awards such as:

•  Great Age Melbourne Writer Festival Poetry Slam Award in 2000

•  Featured in Oxford Literary Festival and the Seoul International Writers Festival

•  Editor for the New Zealand Poetry Society’s magazine, a fine line

•  Co-editor for Verity La. Discoursing Diaspora.

•  Australia Council for the Arts awarded  Ivy Alvarez a grant to support the writing of a fourth volume of  Diaspora in 2019

•  In the previous year, she received a grant from Creative New Zealand, and                                  Stipend residency from the Michael King Writers Centre.

Her other works are:

            Novel in verse

•  Disturbance (Seren Books, 2013)

           

 

            Poetry collections

•  Food for Humans (Melbourne: Slow Joe Crow Press, 2002)

•  catalogue: life as tableware (Wales: The Private Press, 2004

•  What's wrong (Wales: The Private Press, 2004

•  Mortal (Washington, DC: Red Morning Press, 2006

•           One Dozen Poison Hay(na)ku (2013)

•           The Everyday English Dictionary (Paekakariki Press, 2016)

 

2.      Textual Information

        Her poem hold was published at the 4th day of  November 2011

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

COPY OF THE LITERARY TEXT

 

HOLD

 

I have a sorrowing the size of a lump of coal.

 

One day I will tender it. I mean tinder it.

 

I mean light it up in my hands, holding on

 

even as it burns me. My palms will blister,

 

water, bleed, heal, scar over. I will take another

 

lump and light it again. Eventually, palms

 

will be foot soles that have journeyed across

 

the backs of river rocks. For now, let me learn

 

to hold on to something. I mean sorrowing.

 

My sorrowings Your sorrowings.

 

 

ANALYSIS

A.    Literary Genre

1.      Lyric Poetry

Lyric poetry is a formal type of poetry which expresses personal emotions or feelings, typically spoken in the first person. It is not equivalent to song lyrics, though they are often in the lyric mode.

2.      “I have a sorrowing the size of a lump of coal.”

                        “One day I will tender it. I mean tinder it.”

                        “I mean light it up in my hands,

                          holding on even as it burns me.”

This lines are giving a strong thoughts about what Ivy Alvarez feels. They are giving emphasis on what kind of pain she was feeling but at the same she has that courage to hold on even though it really hurts.

B.     Analysis Guides

Reader Response

    We love the poem because of the fact that it contain circumstances that really happens in real life. As a readers we responded in the work of literature by means of analyzing the poem. After we re-read it, our perspective or response change and we started to summarize the poem.

Tone

“My palms will blister, water, bleed, heal, scar over.”

      Ivy Alvarez tone or attitude is emotional. From that line, we can feel her emotion that she is really in pain. Her tone gave impact to the readers and it helps the readers to clearly understand the poem.

Point of View

            “I have a sorrowing the size of a lump of coal.”

           “One day I will tender it. I mean tinder it.”

          “I mean light it up in my hands”

            “I will take another lump and light it again.”

Since in the start and middle of the poem, we can read the word “I", this poem is about first person's point of view.

 

Diction and Style

            The author used sets of informal words because from the beginning or from the title itself, the word used can be easily and clearly understood what the poem is all about.

Images and Symbols

            When reading the poem, we created a picture of a girl suffering and fighting alone. We created it when we red the part “holding on even as it burns me". Blister is the symbol that we used. Blister means scar so we concluded that all the hardships that we are facing serves as a proof that even though it is difficult to handle we still fought and never give up our battles in life.

Sound Effects

            Since there is no rhyming words, then the poem hold is a free verse type of poetry.

Theme

              When Ivy Alvarez publish her poem “Hold" they are experiencing a lot of challenges or circumstances, they have experienced law crimes, war, politics and elections’ issues etc. That situation can be the cause why Ivy Alvarez wrote the poem to tell us about how cruel our world is and how inhumanity can destroy the life of others. This poem is also about how you should deal to your problems. The subject here is the “sorrow" which means everyone of us are sorrowing and the lesson here is that we should stay positive, fight our battles and face our problems. From the title itself “HOLD" it clearly says that don’t give up.

C.    Contextual Analysis

              Using biographical context, it can concluded that the poem “Hold” is all about.                                                              how great Ivy Alvarez as a poet, editor and reviewer based on the festivals like Oxford Literary Festival and the Seoul International Writers Festival where she had been featured.

 

          

   Using sociocultural context, it can be concluded that the poem “Hold" is all about the negative events happened in Ivy Alvarez's life such as law crimes, wars, politics and elections problems, etc. and how she managed or bravely faced them and learned to be just strong and never give up.

SUMMARY

       All in all, the poem hold is about the greatness of Ivy Alvarez as a poet. She used her skills to make a poem that represents what kind of world we have and how the world or society behaviors can cause problems or catastrophes in our life. It is also about how that problems can affect our mental health or destroy our life but at the same time, gave us an important reminder that no matter how hard our situation is, we must hold on, stay still and never ever give up and always remember that everything happens for a reason, God got you and God is in control.

REFERENCES

.       Writers are shameless with their experiences: they exploit them. Meaning writers do not care about their experiences, instead they are using them to inspire others.

Book/s

Alvarez, Ivy (2011). Hold. Guardian UK: Poetry Workshop

Online Sources

Alvarez, Ivy (2011). Wordpress.com. Retrieved from https://www.google.com/amp/s/varunathewritershouse.wordpress.com/2011/11/21/writer-a-day-ivy-alvarez-reading-hold/amp/