The Century Quilt Analysis

FRQ#1 “The Century Quilt” The poem “The Century Quilt” written by Marilyn Nelson Waniek is a poem written through the eyes of a girl obsessed with a quilt which holds centuries of memories. As the poem starts the develop, the message of the main character’s story is expressed through Nelson’s use of hyperboles and imagery. Other elements of the poem such as the structure and tone create and help achieve the deeper message of the poem. The exaggerations used throughout the poem help emphasize the deeper meaning of the quilt and demonstrate the main character’s love that she has developed for a such a simple thing. Nelson states in the second stanza, “Now I’ve found a quilt I’d like to die under,” the use of the writer's dramatic diction helps the reader develop and understand the emotions and the memories that the blanket has created for the reader. The blanket has become symbolic of the times she will never forget. “Dieing” with the quilt is part of the exaggeration and is

By doing so the author is further developing the significance. The narrator recalls multiple key memories that contribute to the significance of the blanket, as well as including her meema’s perspective and how she felt towards the quilt as well. The main character reflects on when she first found the quilt “how we used to wrap ourselves and play in its folds and become chieftains and princess” The quilt becomes far more than a blanket to her. It is the representation of her childhood. It is key to unlocking all her memories from long ago and also being a memory of meema. The poem shifts from the narrator’s memories to meema’s memories, “... a girl again in Kentucky among her yellow sisters” the details given within the poem develop the reader’s idea of the story and gives the reader the ability to experience the memories as