MEDITATION ON RED The meditation is based on a visit the author made to the grave of the Dominicanborn writer Jean

Rhys (1890-1979), author of Wide Sargasso Sea. among many other books. Rhys spent her last years in the village of Cheriton Fitzpaine, Devon, England, where she is buried. Her address was No. 6 Land Boat Bungalows. The poem addresses Miss Rhys and includes the titles of many of her books. snowdrops, daffodils, narcissus: English spring flowers. flame of the forest (Spathodea campanulata), hibiscus (Hibiscus spp.) , heliconia (Heliconia spp.), poinsettia (Poinsettia species), firecracker (Russelia equisetiformis) also called Fountain Bush and Coral Bush, bougainvillea: all tropical flowers with red blooms. Meditation on Red critically examines the repercussions of history on the lives and place of women in society. It is a fusion of features of the meditative ode and elegy which offers a compassionate portraiture of the Dominican born novelist, Jean Rhys who suffered discrimination and racism in England as a result of her cultural background. Senior manages to capture the subjects shifting moods of sadness, disappointment, depression, and escape into alcoholism. With a sense of comedy, admiration and muted awe the poet contemplates the literary and personal ironies of such an exotic tropical beauty now lying beneath the drizzly skies of Englands verdant West Country. Rhys is depicted as a victim of history in the metropolitan center. Meditation on Red makes use of magical realism through The mirroring of Rhys life in her work. Senior artfully integrates references to a number of Rhys novels and short fiction to highlight a sense of exile, alienation and cultural discrimination experienced by Rhys during her life in England. There are clear allusions to her work. By these numerous references, Senior illustrates that Rhys life was indexed in her own work; the experiences of her numerous fictional heroines mirror her own sense of alienation and despair. Senior also alludes to T.S. Elliots famous poem; The love song of J. Alfred Prufrock making a face to meet the taunting faces of village children to underscore the pretence that Rhys had to adopt as a coping strategy in what became for her a hostile environment.

Memento mori motif(remember that we must die) Digression, Mixed form poetry