MEDITATION

ON
RED
By Olive Senior

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Olive Senior was born and brought up in Jamaica
and educated in Jamaica and Canada. She is a
graduate of Montego Bay High School and
Carleton University, Ottawa.
She started her career as a journalist with the
Daily Gleaner and later entered the world of
publishing. She was editor of two of the
Caribbean's leading journals - Social and
Economic Studies at the University of the West
Indies and Jamaica Journal, published by Institute
of Jamaica Publications of which she was also
Managing Director. She left Jamaica in 1989,
spent some years in Europe and since 1993 has
been based in Toronto.

SUMMARY OF THE POEM

Meditation on Red displays features of meditative rhyme and
speech which offers a compassionate sense of feel for the
Dominican born female 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 gentle awe the poet contemplates the literary and
personal ironies of such an exotic tropical beauty now lying
beneath the drizzly skies of Englands fertile West Country.

RED VS YELLOW
This poem differs significantly from another poem in the
collection, with which it shares part of a title: Meditation
on Yellow. The two poems differ thematically, have a
markedly different scope of experience (one is more
universal, while the other is more personal) and differ
structurally in some ways. However, the similarity of their
titles begs us to explore these two poems together.

RED VS YELLOW
By studying these two poems together we gain different experiences of people in
different times. They speak about different struggles that had to be endured by
persons of similar character strength. The struggles in each poem, are similar but
they also differ in many aspects and in Meditation on Red Senior clearly states
that her experience was somewhat different to Rhys. But the essential point to be
drawn from these poems is that struggles pay off, eventually. The thinking or
meditation makes what we are going through seem not as bad in comparison to
what others went through because times change and so do peoples way of
thinking. Our paths have thus been paved by our predesessors. The colours may
also be significant in that they are what allows the persons to keep on struggling.
The yellow may represent the quest for freedom and the red may represent the
passion within that made Rhys unable to give up.

STRUCTURE OF POEM
The structure of Meditation on Red is an Ode. This is
such as it is form of praise and admiration Jean Rhys.
Elegy, which, in literature, is a mournful, melancholic or
plaintive poem, especially a funeral song or a lament for
the dead.
Monologue- no specific stanzaic structure; mirrors the
thoughts and reflections of Senior.

STRUCTURE OF POEM
Red is a symbol of hope, life, passion, freedom, femininity, Identity
(Caribbean, creole), happiness, energy, vibrance, positivity

Significance of the Title Senior reflects on Red as a combative

agent against grey. It is representative of England, which is a source
of alienation, sadness, discrimination and displacement for Rhys.
She was mocked in England because of her accent. (alienation and
discrimination comes in here)

STRUCTURE OF POEM
Narrative Perspective: Part 1
- Second person narrative voice Almost like a resurrection of Jhean
Rhys. Jhean Rhys comes alive to be apart of the storyline. She gives life to
the dead Jhean Rhys. Gives an idea of meditation and reflection.
Part 2 First person we realize that Rhys is dead when the other person
is introduced. Sense of admiration for Rhys

Techniques Intertextuality, Orality, Nautical motif, pun, irony, contrast,

gardening motif, repetition, photograph motif, metaphor, simile, use of
epigraph

ANALYSIS OF THE POEM

Stanza 1- The landing of Jean Rhys from Dominica to England.
This impact of impact history in the colonies
Land Locked- She was tucked at her England address. Caribbean Islands
Surrounded by water and England by land- draws parallel of both places

Stanza 2 - Destiny stormed tossed this describes the

challenges and the alienation she will face when she gets to
England
Stanza 3 Land Boat Bungalows is where she will reside.
:The fear of being left high and dry- literal lack of floods, her time of
lonliness, emptiness and no companionship

ANALYSIS OF THE POEM

Stanza 4- There is a mood shift. Shifting of moods of
sadness, disappointment, depression and eventual escape in
colonialism
Stanza 5- Her discomfort with the weather is highlighted ,
it is very cold
- One meets dark figures- sinister people.

Stanza 6- Her desire to leave, she wants to escape this place

that she thought would give her opportunity, even though it
was prophesied that she would be great. I see..
- Rudderless- she lacks direction, also she wanted to

ANALYSIS OF THE POEM

Stanza 7- Marooned in the grey- this line symbolised she
being trapped in sadness, gloom, alienation
- Garden- Motif
Stanza 8 - Getting to the root of the problem, she is being
discriminated against, Which
- She would garden to cope with the sadness
- This also shows how the black people felt over the years when they
moved to these countries

ANALYSIS OF THE POEM

Stanza 9- she failed at gardening- not one came up, this
emphasized her failure. The use ellipse () shows the
procressing of time and that the poet was planting other
things
Stanza 10-She is fraustrated
Stanza 11- the use of a red dress in your closetIntertextuality. They were awaiting Jean to breakdown
mentality and mentality simalir to how her character of
Anionette broke down in her novel Wide Sargasso Sea

ANALYSIS OF POEM
Stanza 13 - Frayed emotionally like the woman in the
attic.. like the coat she is wearing

THEMES WITHIN THE POEM

Women,
Impact of History
Displacement
Colonialism
Alienation/Discrimination