Write a critical analysis of an 'Elegy for my Father' by Annie Finch Essay

Write a critical analysis of an 'Elegy for my Father' by Annie Finch - Essay Example Right from beginning her work brought recognition to how she has brought music to meter without diverging from the truthfulness of her emotions which she wants to express. This musicality in her words later shows through when she wrote libretti for operas and lieder for contemporary composers. Her work shows not only the relationship between nature and human but also the themes evolving from her religious inclinations. Calenders has works woven around the cycles in a Celtic or wiccan calendar and whether the themes are based in myth or in real life relations they broadly cover the cycles in a women’s life. The works like ‘Elegy for my Father’ show not only Finch’s poetic prowess but also how a personal moment became the inspiration. ‘Calenders’ is one of Finch’s major poetry books which includes her works from 1990s as well as some poems from 1980s and one from 1970. The poems are written around the theme of Celtic or Wiccan calendar which reflects not only the seasons though titles like Spring Equinox, Summer Solstice, Winter Solstice, Lammas, Imbolc but they also bring the cyclical nature of time and specially a woman’s life to the reader. Many poems varying in style and ideas are written around themes which are more feminist like a woman’s cycles, her relationship with parents, her grievances, her pregnancies and her loves but in other poems which are not around mythical, like ‘Elegy for my Father’, Finch is inspired by some moment in her life. Calenders not only has a detailed account of how and when the poems were completed but it is also accompanied by a guide which is a complete work of poetics in itself. Finch listed when each poem was eventually completed and how the book evolved. The ‘Elegy for my Father’ is written in dactylic tetrameter and is unrhymed. Finch is not someone who is limited by meter. It comes as no surprise when we see variations of dactylic meter in