An Unknown Girl Essay

In this essay, I will be comparing and contrasting the two poems ‘Electricity Comes to Cocoa Bottom’ and ‘An Unknown Girl’.

The two poems have a theme of discovery, although it is more evident in the poem ‘An Unknown Girl’ than in ‘Electricity…’ The discovery of light made from electricity is what ‘Electricity…’ is about, and ‘An Unknown Girl’ has the theme of discovery of the poet’s own identity.

‘Electricity…’ begins with a sentence that makes the reader feel as if they are reading a fairytale-like story. “Then all the children of Cocoa Bottom” gives the impression that it is taken place in the middle of the story due to the use of the adverb “then”. As the poem continues, it explains how everyone at Cocoa Bottom is anticipating to see the electric light from Mr. Samuel’s house, even nature is looking forward to it since the poet uses lots of personification and similes like how a breeze “held its breath.” The poet also uses repetition to get their points across, and represent periods of time. The short one-word sentences and full stops of “Closing. Closing.” suggests that some time has passed by giving off a slow mood when you read it.

Soon after you read that last sentence, the next stanza starts with another one-word sentence. “Light!” indicated the discovery of light in the poem. In the

The poet notices how an unknown girl is “icing” her hand, which is a Western way of describing putting henna on. This implies that the girl is decorating the poet’s hand and making it look very pretty. Some lines after that, the poem mentions dummies with “perms”. This, too, is a very Western thing to include in a poem that is set in a very cultural country, so it could mean that the poet is unsure of who she really is and does not know which side to pick. Another Western reference is the “Miss India”, implying that the country is also getting influenced from the