Poetry for Students

242 Poetry for Students

Personification

As noted in the poem summary above,

Bialosky sometimes imbues non-human objects

with human characteristics. The two main exam-

ples of this occur in lines 4–5, when leaves are

given “arteries,” and in lines 36–37, when an ap-

ple is given “flesh.” This poetic technique, called

personification, is very important to the successful

development of poet’s themes, particularly the idea

of blending, combining, and weaving characters

and events. Personification enhances Bialosky’s

ability to underscore the melding of the worlds of

the speaker, her daughter, and Persephone, because

it melds character to place and makes identity more

fluid. For example, the first instance of personifi-

cation allows the reader to imagine that the arter-

ies of the speaker are extending into the garden,

and the second instance binds the child in a phys-

ical way to her mother’s brain, as well as the gar-

den. Personification also serves as a connecting

point for these key ideas, since a similar stylistic

technique makes the reader think of its other in-

stance, particularly in a case such as this where both

examples are tied to the garden.

The other reason this device is particularly

suitable for “Seven Seeds” is that a key character

in the poem, Demeter, is an inherent example of

personification. The earth goddess is, in a sense,

the “garden” imbued with human characteristics.

Bialosky uses this fact to bring the worlds of the

poem much closer; because the reader sees the

speaker’s arteries move into the garden, he/she im-

mediately fuses the speaker with ideas related to

Demeter. The poet then goes on to combine nat-

ural and human imagery by placing them so close

together and by using such phrases as “warm-bed-

ded / meadow” that combine earth and garden with

motherhood and home.

Visual Construction

The key stylistic devices in “Seven Seeds”

are the extended comparisons that overlap and

form layers in order to provide a complex and

carefully structured visual poem. The speaker be-

gins by comparing herself to a bird “confined to

her nest.” Immediately after this transformation

of a person to an animal is the personification,

imbuing a cherry tree with arteries. Then the sec-

ond stanza begins by giving plant qualities (with

the word “sprouted”) to an unborn child. These

layers of comparison continue until the simile in

the lines thirty-five to thirty-eight of a star of ap-

ple seeds being compared to a light in the speaker’s

brain.

All of these comparisons are carefully em-

ployed in order to highlight thematic considera-

tions, and to create a visual sense of the ideas in

the poem. There is so much overlap and layering

because the speaker overlaps her identity with those

of her unborn daughter and the mythical figure of

Persephone. For example, when Persephone’s lips

are stained crimson, the poet is visually connect-

ing them to the cherry tree and the apple and there-

fore, by simile, to the objects of desire connected

to the garden. This is a complex relationship the

poet purposefully creates in order to express her

ideas about what is connected in theme; this tech-

nique allows Bialosky to make her most important

observations. She melds characters and ideas to suit

her meditations, which are themselves complex

themes that blend together. Following the compar-

ison and visual connection of words and ideas al-

lows for a much fuller understanding of both the

style and the meaning of the poem.

Historical Context

Although many of her poems refer to the Midwest

American homeland of her youth, Bialosky is part

of the contemporary writing scene in New York

City. She teaches a poetry workshop at Columbia

University and has an influential role as a high-pro-

file editor in the large publishing company W. W.

Norton. But “Seven Seeds” is not easily associated

with any particular aesthetic or poetic movement.

It has loose connections to postmodernism, an in-

fluential theoretical movement involving (among

other elements) the abandonment of a traditional

linear narrative. But this can be largely attributed

to this theory’s general influence on contemporary

works; although the poem questions identity and

jumps between time periods, it has no characteris-

tics that strictly identify it as “postmodern.”

The reader knows “Seven Seeds” takes place

in a walk-up apartment with a garden outside, but

he/she is given no other clear context. A variety of

cultural speculations are available from the other

poems in Subterranean, such as a resonance of

Midwestern American life for an adolescent; nev-

ertheless, the literal location of “Seven Seeds” is

not specified. Perhaps this is partly because it al-

lows more freedom for the speaker to enter an an-

cient mythological role-play. In fact, the most

important historical and cultural background for the

poem is the sustained classical reference in stanzas

3 and 4.

Seven Seeds

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