Marrysong by Dennis Scott

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MarrysongbyDennis Scott

• Purnia
• Sidra
• Marium
• Afshan

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Poem

• He never learned her, quite. Year after yearThat
  territory, without seasons, shiftedunder his
  eye. An hour he could be lostin the walled anger
  of her quarried hurton turning, see cool water
  laughing wherethe day before there were stones
  in her voice.He charted. She made wilderness
  again.Roads disappeared. The map was never
  true.Wind brought him rain sometimes, tasting of
  sea -and suddenly she would change the shape of
  shoresfaultlessly calm. All, all was each day
  newthe shadows of her love shortened or
  grewlike trees seen from an unexpected hill,new
  country at each jaunty helpless journey.So he
  accepted that geography, constantly
  strange.Wondered. Stayed home increasingly to
  findhis way among the landscapes of her mind.

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Dennis Scott

• Dennis Scott (December 16, 1939 February 21,
  1991) was a Jamaican poet,
• playwright, actor (best known for appearances on
  The Cosby Show) and dancer.
• Education
• Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Scott was educated at
  the University of the
• West Indies and taught in Jamaica, Trinidad and
  Tobago, and at Yale University
• in the United States.
• He wrote a famous poem called 'Marrysong' which
  is used in the IGCSE syllabus.
• Scott was also a successful playwright, theatre
  director, and drama teacher.
• During his life, he published numerous poetry
  collections, the most famous of
• which being Uncle Time, and Dreadwalk. bakakakw
• Poetry
• Scott was one of the most significant poets
  writing in the early post-independence
• period in Jamaica, and his first published
  collection, Uncle Time, is marked by an
• effective literary use of the vernacular. He has
  been regarded as one of the main
• influences for modern Jamaican poetry.
• Acting

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Brief Introduction

• 'Marrysong' is about a man who is desperate to
  understand his wife a stormy, temperamental
  woman who he compares to territory.
• The poem is an extended metaphor of this,
  explaining that the man explored her, and tried
  to 'map' her so that he could understand and
  predict her, but he fails to do so, and he keeps
  surprising her. He almost expresses a despairing
  and complaining attitude, but he seems more
  baffled by her. He also finds her a little
  alluring and intriguing in the way that her mood
  changes every day. The poem concludes with the
  man putting an end to trying to figure her out,
  and takes her for who she is without questioning
  it.

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Themes

• Relationships
• Emotional turmoil
• Confusion
• Compromises

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Metaphors

• Wind brought him rain sometimes, tasting of sea
  Tears
• use of the metaphor of geography to explain the
  study personality-charted-the landscape of her
  mind. Landscapes of her mind.
• Seasons shifted under his eye-happenings in
  their relationship
• Stones in her voice, bitterness of poets
  partner.

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Structure

• - Her unpredictable personality is reinforced by
  the use of full stops (irregular) and suggests
  that he is confused (random pauses).
• -17 Lines.
• Free verse
• Irregular (which suggests confusion).
• Lines 7 and 8 are made up of four very short
  sentences. Effect represents the abrupt mood
  changes of the wife, the roads disappeared. The
  short lines give a feeling of complexity.

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• Jazak Allah