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