Ode to SuburbiaWritten by Eavan BolandPresented by Michael Scaccia

Vocab words to know• Ode: a poem meant to be sung• Suburbia: a collective area of suburbs which are

an area outside a city• Gape: to stare with a wide open mouth in wonder• Varicose: abnormally or unusually large • Cot: a bed like sleeping apparatus• Sinews: source of power or strength• Encroach: deviate from usual power, make new

roads, trespass• Spinster: a woman unmarried beyond normal age

Literary Features• Man vs. Fate

• Power

• Tone

• Six O’clock: the kitchen bulbs which blister

• Your Dark, your housewives starting to nose

• Out each other’s day, the claustrophobia

• Of your back gardens varicose

• With shrubs make an ugly sister

• Of you suburbia

• How long ago did the glass in your windows subtly

• Silver into mirrors which again

• And again show the same woman

• Shriek at a child, which multiply

• A dish, a brush, ash,• The gape of a fish

• In the kitchen, the gape of a child in the cot?

• You swelled so that when you tried

• The silver slipper on your foot

• It pinched your instep and the common

• Hurt which touched you made

• You Human

• No creatures of your streets will feel the touch

• Of a wand turning the wet sinews

• Of fruit suddenly to a coach,

• While this rat without leather reins

• Or a whip or britches continues

• Slimming your drains

• No magic here. Yet you encroach me until

• The shy countryside, fooled

• By your plainness falls, then rises

• From your bed changed, schooled

• Forever by your skill, • Your comprises.

• Midnight and your metamorphosis

• Is now complete, although the mind

• Which spinstered now might still miss

• Your mystery now, might still fail

• To see your powers defined

• By this detail:

• By this creature drowsing now in every house,

• The same lion who tore stripes

• Once off zebras, who now sleeps

• Small beside the coals and may

• On a red letter day• Catch a mouse.

Allusions• Suburbia refers to the communities and more

often than not the housewives that inhabit there (main character) • Housewives are represented in this way due to how they

are enveloped in this environment and are therefore “shaped” by it

• Midnight is often referred to the magical hours of night in poem• The narrator receives her imaginary powers during this

time

• Most likely can refer to any period of time as suburbia's still exist today and there are still housewives

Inarguable• Context:

• It is similar to most of her poems as each stanza is comprised of 4 lines each and a similar syllable count effective in each stanza

• This poem comprises of 7 stanzas with 6 lines each• Syllable count varies with each individual stanza

• Meaning of the poem• The poem takes place between the times of 6 a.m. and midnight• This time involves a transformation from an urban mom to an

individual with freedom beyond imagination• The audience of the his poem would mostly comprise of housewives• A female (who is the persona of the speaker) narrates her

lifestyle as she is a victim of her environment and limited lifestyle• Such constraints are her children and commitments• She dreams to break away from this

Arguable• Claim: This poem presents two contrasting ideals

of the narrator’s world • One is real and the other is imaginary• This imaginary world is often mocked compared to

being unrealistic• This is compared to a lion eating a mouse

• The real world is hated and dull • Represented by the “claustrophobia” and “ugly sister”• Gape of a child should also be noted as the constant

attention to children is never ending

Literary Features• Man vs. Fate

• The denial of present stance in the world of the narrator• Fate will bring her back to reality the next day • There is no perfect world

• Power• Is a necessity to be obtained• Provides the ability for independence• Breaks free from traditional perspective of life

• Tone• Full of despair in the beginning• Infinitely tied to child and home

• Aspiration in the end• Even a little freedom is asked for