Rita Dove photoRita Dove

Background information

Well-Known Works

  • The Yellow House on the Corner
  • Thomas and Beulah
  • Adolescence I, II, and III
  • The Bistro Styx
  • And many others.

Adolescence III

With Dad gone, Mom and I worked
The dusky rows of tomatoes.
As they glowed orange in sunlight
And rotted in shadows, I too
Grew orange and softer, swelling out
 Starched cotton slips.
The texture of twilight made me think of
Lengths of Dotted Swiss.  In my room
I wrapped scarred knees in dresses
That once went to big-band dances;
I baptized my earlobes with rosewater.
Along the window-sill, the lipstick stubs
Glittered in their steel shells.
Looking out at the rows of clay
And chicken manure, I dreamed how it would happen;
He would meet me by the blue spruce,
A carnation over his heart, saying,
“I have come for you, Madam;
I have loved you in my dreams.”
At his touch, the scabs would fall away.
Over his shoulder, I see my father coming toward us:
He carries his tears in a bowl,
And blood hangs in the pine-soaked air.

Adolescence II

Although it is night, I sit in the bathroom, waiting.
Sweat prickles behind my knees, the baby-breasts are alert.
Venetian blinds slice up the moon; the tiles quiver in pale strips.
Then they come, the three seal men with eyes as round
As dinner plates and eyelashes like sharpened tines.
They bring the scent of licorice.  One sits in the washbowl,
One on the bathtub edge; one leans against the door.
“Can you feel it yet?”  they whisper.
I don’t know what to say, again.  They chuckle,
Patting their sleek bodies with their hands.
“Well, maybe next time.”  And they rise,
Glittering like pools of ink under moonlight,
And vanish.  I clutch at the ragged holes
They leave behind, here the edge of darkness.
Night rests like a ball of fur on my tongue.
 

Literary Terms

Consonance-repetition of consonant sounds.
(Can be found in lines 9 and 10 of Adolescence III.)
I wrapped scarred knees in dresses
That once went to big-band dances;

Enjambment-continuation of thought in several lines.

(Can be found in lines 3-6 of Adolescence III.)
As they glowed orange in sunlight
And rotted in shadows, I too
Grew orange and softer, swelling out
 Starched cotton slips.
 

Image-language that evokes the senses.

(Can be found in line 11of Adolescence III.)
I baptized my earlobes with rosewater.

Cacophony-harsh, discordant sounds

(Can be found in line 23 of Adolescence III.)
And blood hangs in the pine-soaked air.
 

Third person point of view-using the words I and me

(Can be found in lines 7-9 of Adolescence III.)
The texture of twilight made me think of
Lengths of Dotted Swiss.  In my room
I wrapped scarred knees in dresses

Blocking of Adolescence III

After Dad’s death, Mom and I worked in the garden.
The tomatoes grew in the sunshine and rotted in the shade; like the tomatoes, I became prettier but grew out of my clothes.
The night sky reminded me of fabric with raised dots.
I wore fancy dresses that covered my scars.
I wore perfume behind my ears.
The lipstick in their tubs looked nice sitting next to the window.
Looking out my window, I thought about my father.
He would stand by the spruce tree, with a flower in his hand saying, “I have come back for you; I really loved you even though I never said it.”
When he touched me, all the pain would go away.
As he came closer, I would remember the pain and truth of how he really died.

 

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