A Daughter Named After Nina

By Elizabeth Acevedo

voice of incoming 2 express train

pray herself altar

contort mouth shotgun:

sawed off           a saw

soften tongue songbird

hands mosaicked mirrors

donning skin like battle gear

dawning skin like evening gown

this name pinned on her shoulders;

a heavy mantle. an incantation.

In “A Daughter Named After Nina,” Elizabeth Acevedo talks about the pressure and power of having a name. The poem is about a speaker who thinks about what it is like to be named after someone great. Acevedo portrays what it is like to have a name that is both a burden and a power, revealing that the struggle between expectation and identity can lead someone to want to live up to the meaning of their name and create their own identity.

The poem explains the burden placed on the daughter, who was named after “Nina.” The title, “A Daughter Named After Nina,” is important because it goes into the idea of inheritance. “Daughter” itself is significant, because it means youth and relation, while “named after” means legacy. The speaker is not just herself, but she is constantly being compared to someone else. This is emphasized at the end of the poem, where the speaker says, “This name pinned on her shoulders; / a heavy mantle. an incantation.” The “heavy mantle” is a metaphor, demonstrating the burden and pressure as if the name is something she must wear at all times. “An incantation” gives the name a magical quality, as if the name itself holds some kind of power.

The characterization of the speaker appears to be strong and yet conflicted at the same time. The speaker changes herself throughout this poem in reaction to her name. For instance, she talks of “voice of incoming 2 express train.” This is an image of loudness and yet an unstoppable force this is a display of power and boldness on her part. However, when she “contort[s] mouth shotgun: / sawed off a saw,” we are can visualize a harsher image.When the speaker “contort[s]” the speaker is not comfortable. This is an example of a forceful change of self in reaction to her name. The speaker is passionate in her descriptions of her voice and body as she changes herself to fit her name.

The author uses techniques that helps to enhance the meaning of the poem. The poem uses metaphors and juxtapositions in its lines. The simile “donning skin like battle gear / dawning skin like evening gown.” The battle gear implies defense and toughness, while an evening gown implies beauty and elegance. By juxtaposing the two, Acevedo implies that the speaker has to be both warrior and performer. This shows that the speaker is learning her adaptation to what her name requires of her.

The language used in the poem is very sharp. Words like “shotgun,” “battle gear,” and “heavy mantle” have very intense connotations. In contrast, words like “soften tongue songbird” have very gentle meanings. The shift in the poem is quite evident in the last two lines. After several transformations, the poem ends with addressing the name. Instead of focusing on actions, the speaker reflects on the burden, showing signs of understanding.

The poem’s structure is broken into short sentences with little punctuation. This gives the poem a quick pace, almost like an “incoming 2 express train.” However, the white space incorporated forces the reader to take a pause. Representing the struggle of cutting parts of oneself and separating it. The poem does not have a traditional rhyming scheme, which represents the struggle of finding order in the speaker’s identity.

Elizabeth Acevedo’s poem is one of complexity when it comes to living up to a legacy of power. She doesn’t hate her name, but she is struggling with it as she wants to live up to it and yet still become who she is at the same time. The poem is trying to demonstrate that identity is not a fixed thing but actually something that we continuously shape and reshape. Acevedo writes how a name is both an empowerment and a burden, especially when expectations are more than the person can handle.

Wilfred Owen (1893-1918)

Dulce et Decorum est 

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, 

Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,  

Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs  

And towards our distant rest began to trudge.  

Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots  5

But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;  

Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots  

Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.

Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! –  An ecstasy of fumbling,  

Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;  10

But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,  

And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime . . .  

Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,  

As under a green sea, I saw him drowning. 

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,  15

He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning. 

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace  

Behind the wagon that we flung him in,  

And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,  

His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;  20

If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood  

Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,  

Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud  

Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,  

My friend, you would not tell with such high zest  25

To children ardent for some desperate glory,  

The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est  

Pro patria mori. 

The poem “Dulce et Decorum est” by Wilfred Owen reflects the loss and pain that occurs in war from the perspective of a soldier, to condemn the act of glorifying war. Wilfred Owen was a World War I vetran and wrote poems based on his own experiences in the war. Unlike other poets who glorify war and show it to be brave and heroic, Owen reflects on how painful war really is for soldiers.

In the beginning of the poem, Owen writes about how the soldiers are weak and unable to move. He compares them to “old beggars under sacks,” making you think how this is different of what you would normally see a image that soldiers should be strong and heroic. However, this comparison emphasizes that war has completely destroyed these men. The men are not marching triumphantly they are “coughing like hags” and moving through the mud. This description of the men makes them sound like broken people rather than warriors.

The poem is from the view of a soldier who appears to be very moved by the things he witnessed. This is especially seen when the gas attack occurs. The sudden cry of “Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!” alters the atmosphere of the poem completely. The panic and confusion as the soldiers scramble to put their gas masks allows the speaker to show his audience the horror he feels when it happens. And as one of the soldiers fails to put his mask on in time, the speaker writes of him “flound’ring like a man in fire or lime,” which reveals the agony and terror of his death. This simile allows the reader to visualize the burning and asphyxiating effects of the gas on him and the simple and true fact that the other soldiers had to witness it.

One of the most impactful sections of the poem comes when the speaker describes that he cannot escape this memory. He says, “In all my dreams… He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.” This shows that the trauma of war stays with him even after the event. The fact that the soldier appears in his dreams shows that war has long-lasting effects, not just physical but also mental. This further shows that even after the war is over, its effects continue to destroy these men who are often seen as heroes when in reality they are far from anything glorious and live in those memories for the rest of their lives.

The title of the poem is another significant part to the message that is being delivered. “Dulce et Decorum est” is actually a Latin phrase written by the Roman poet Horace, which means “It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country.” This phrase was actually used to encourage patriotism and make war glorious. But Wilfred Owen disagrees with this idea completely, after describing the gruesome death of the soldier, Owen calls this phrase “The old Lie,” which shows that Horace’s statement is something that a person in power made up to get young men excited for war. Wilfred Owen is actually linking the old ideas of honor and glory with the new war developments of World War I. The phrase “It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country” is actually false. The idea that it is sweet to die in war is actually shown to be violent, cruel, and painful. Due to the development of new horrific war weapons they have used and deployed starting in the first world war. 

Another thing Owen uses to create discomfort in the reader is his choice of words. When Owen writes about the lungs of the dying man, he says they spew forth blood that is “obscene as cancer.” The word choice there and, throughout the whole poem, creates a sense of disease and unhealthiness about war. It is impossible to think of the death of the soldier as honorable when Owen uses such strong language. He uses this vulgar language to further implement his ideas of war being something of true disgust. 

“Dulce et Decorum est” shows that one should not glorify war. Through the memories and nightmares of the speaker, Wilfred Owen demonstrates the impact of war on soldiers, both physically and mentally. Instead of glorifying war, the poem shows the suffering, and the loss over ones body and mind that comes with it. Owen’s message in the poem teaches readers to think critically about war and the real consequences that soldiers face while everyone else watches in awe.

“Swallowtail” By Brenna Twohy

The medical history form reads, “Has someone physically, sexually, or emotionally abused you?” with a box for yes and a box for no.

• I am mostly fine
• I am mostly fine but
• One Thanksgiving his mom told me this story about how as a child he found a butterfly in the yard with half a wing missing. He cupped it in his hands, brought it inside, and held it covered against his stomach for fear it would fly away. They called the animal hospital on the landline and were instructed to carefully clip the healthy wing to match the broken one.
• A cage of gentle hands is still a cage, and I know this now.
• I would have climbed in the jar if he’d asked me. I would have torn the good wing off myself.

The poem “Swallowtail” by Brenna Twohy is a poem on trying to understand pain, love, and healing of a person after having the difficulty of recognizing the abuse. In this poem, the speaker reveals how emotional abuse can hide beneath gentleness, showing that control and harm can exist even in relationships that appear loving on the surface.

The title of this poem is important because a swallowtail is a type of butterfly, and butterflies are often symbolic of beauty, growth, and transformation. This sets the reader up for a poem about healing, but Twohy also reminds us that butterflies are fragile. In this sense, the title suggests that the speaker is one who has the potential to grow but also carries the marks of past hurt.

The poem opens with the question, “Has someone physically, sexually, or emotionally abused you?” It is a question that assumes the entirety of someone’s past can be reduced to a yes or no response, but the speaker challenegs this immediately, by insisting “I am mostly fine,” as a difference that minimizes one’s own experiences. When the next line shifts into “I am mostly fine but”, the unfinished thought signals that something painful is rising, something that cannot easily be written into a box.

The following memory becomes the poem’s largest paragraph, discussing Thanksgiving, and the speaker learns about how their partner, as a child, found “a butterfly in the yard with half a wing missing.” Instead of letting the butterfly go the child “cupped it in his hands, brought it inside, and held it covered against his stomach for fear it would fly away.” The image of cupped hands might at first seem caring, but the detail that he hid it against his body because he feared its freedom hints at possessiveness rather than compassion. When the family calls the animal hospital and is told to clip the healthy wing to “match” the broken one, the metaphor becomes even clearer that the butterfly is harmed in the name of help.

This story lets the speaker understand her own relationship in a new way. “A cage of gentle hands is still a cage, and I know this now” is the emotional turning point of the poem for the speaker. It shows that affection and gentleness do not cancel out control and abuse. Someone can hold you softly and still keep you trapped. This realization is strong because it challenges the common misconception that abuse has to leave visible wounds or obvious brutality.

The speaker becomes more aware in the final lines, as “I would have climbed in the jar if he’d asked me,” confesses how emotional dependence may lead someone to accept restrictions willingly. Showing how she would have entered a confined world so the relationship could live. The most heartbreaking part is “I would have torn the good wing off myself,” revealing how deeply she internalized the notion that she had to make herself broken to be loved. Abuse often convinces its victims that shrinking themselves is the only way to maintain peace. Overall, the poem uses the metaphor of the butterfly to outline the gentle and confusing nature of control. Allowing the speaker to realize that being handled softly does not mean being treated properly, and one’s freedom is worth more than any relationship that may ask to clip their own wings.