7/30/2019 Heaney Pastiche - Stained Window

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Stained Window

Through the window

I saw dandelions flyingAnd fairies spraying glitter

On everything they hovered over.

The flower-shaped and fluffy 5

Clouds in the sky,

The radiant sun

Emitting warmth from above

Were beyond imagination

For every child. 10

Flawless, was the perfect

Word to describe the world.

Then it started raining outside

Pounding and striking on the window

Every single moment, blocking the view, 15

Transforming the window into a mirror.

Six years later I look at the window,

Hoping to see the magic once more.

Instead, I see the hostile creature

In the mirror staring back. 20

Everywhere I go,

The mirror stalks.

Reminding me

About how dreadful it is.Magnifying the freckles 25

And pimples on the face.

Stressing on the awful

Scars and bruises.

Even if it ever stops pouring

Someday, the clear window 30

That I once looked through

Will be stained permanently.

7/30/2019 Heaney Pastiche - Stained Window

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  ‘The clear window that I once looked through will be stained permanently’ (30-32).

The poem ‘Mirror’ I wrote is a poem that shows the change in me after growing up and

becoming self-conscient. I approached this idea through symbolism of the way I see the

world, hostile diction and an organized and appropriate structure. Not only do these poetic

techniques enhance the conveying of the main idea of ‘Mirror’, but it also builds up a

pastiche of Heaney’s poetry. 

The main idea of this poem is about how the focus of my mind changes from the

world to my body image as I grow up. Just like most of Heaney’s poems, the focus of ‘Mirror’

is about the internal change in me as I grew up. It talks about how when I was young, the

main thing I was focused on was how amazing the world is and I was very open minded

about it. However, as I grew older, the focus transfers onto my body image. This idea is

expressed using words such as ‘fairies’ (3), ‘fluffy’ (5) and ‘flawless’ (11). They represent

what I thought of the world as a child. In the second stanza, words like ‘freckles’ (25) and

‘scars’ (28) show that my focus has shifted onto the flaws in me. This poem has a hostile

tone and atmosphere. Also, it creates an irritated mood. In line 20, the word ‘staring’ and

stressing (27) illustrates the hostility I feel of being self-conscience as I grew older. ‘Themirror stalks’ (22) shows the irritation in me of  constantly being aware of how I am not

perfect and how I am not pretty. In the last 3 lines, ‘The clear window that I once looked

through will be stained permanently’, expresses the frustration in me of knowing that it will

never be possible for me to not be self-conscience of my body image ever again once I had

been influenced by the society. At least the way I view myself will never be the same.

Through various poetic techniques, I conveyed the main idea of ‘Mirror’ successfully.

Similar to Heaney’s style of writing, I passed on the idea through a central metaphor,

Stained window. ‘Window’ (1) symbolizes how I was looking at the world with an open mind

as a child, as ‘raining outside (13) implies that the world and society is slowly changing me

internally. In the second stanza, ‘freckles’ (25) and ‘scars’ (28) symbolize the numerous flawsin me that I am aware of. There is a hostile diction in the second stanza, such as ‘staring’

(20), ‘stalks’ (22) and ‘stressing’ (27) These words are to emphasize the hostility I feel when I

have grown up and am self-conscience of my body image. Identical to most of Heaney’s

poem, ‘Mirror’ is structured in a binary form. Through this structure, it effectively presents

the different periods of my internal focus. In the first stanza, line 1 through 12 illustrates my

focus on the outside world as a child, as line 13 to 16 talks about the occurring of the

transformation. The second stanza expresses my feelings of always being aware of my body

image while the last 4 lines in the stanza is about the frustration of mine of knowing that it

would never be the same as me being a child again. However, one main weakness in ‘Mirror’

is that I did not include any aural imagery to support conveying the main idea.‘Mirror’ is a successful pastiche of Heaney’s poetry. The main idea of ‘Mirror’ was

conveyed through numerous poetic techniques including symbolism, hostile diction and it

was also created in a binary form, just like Heaney’s poetry. However, if I were able to

improve the poem, the most important idea I would add in is the reason of the change of 

my internal mind in progress. This is because the progression of my internal change was

only briefly mentioned in line 13-16 in this poem. I did not go into details of the reasons of 

the transformation due to the fact that I found it difficult to deliver that message through

symbolism. Nevertheless, it is a very important point that should have being mentioned in

details, as for it is the cause to the internal change in me.

I was able to convey the main idea of ‘Mirror’ effectively through a pastiche of Heaney’s poetry.