Alex Cooper Assignment 1

In Ludvigson’s poem “Inventing My Parents,” she alludes to many things including several famous authors, but the one that stands out, that is set apart from the rest, is towards the end when she alludes to, “Canonization.” This allusion I believe is on its’ own away from the other allusions to the authors, because it is more important than the others, it is more important for the reader to connect this allusion to the theme of the poem to see the theme.

The theme made evident by the quote from “Canonization”: “For God’s sake hold your tongue, and let me love,” is the presence of underlying tensions even in the best of times. There are many examples of tension in the poem, the first is of the war. “They sit in the bright café discussing Hemmingway and how this war will change them.” This sentence makes it seem as though it were small talk in a nice café with no worries and yet the topic is war which is not a light topic. Following their discussion of war, “they disagree about the American Dream.” This is the opposite of the previous example, because now the topic is light but it seems tense because the woman, “she imagines it a hawk flying over, its shadow sweeping every town.” The use of the word shadow here makes it seem unwelcome. At last they seem to be completely at ease when they decide to walk home and the quote from “Canonization” comes up, but then it begins to rain.