Some Say Plants Do Not Talk by Rosalia De Castro Essay

Rosalia De Castro is among the famous poets during the Galician Renaissance period, and she was also a novelist. During her years as a poetic, Rosalia De Castro completed several poems like They Say that Plants do not speak and The atmosphere is Incandescent. Rosalia De Castro in her poems she covers some issues like power, motivations of the Galician`s, how they fought and protected their land, lack of resources, the knowledge and wisdom a well as migrations. In her poems, De Castro manages to write the content that was personal, trying to explain the hardship of living a life where you are oppressed, unhappy, secluded, vain life, feelings of regrets and bitterness that the Castilian people had due to the oppression cases. Focusing on one of her poem They Say Plants do not speak is one of the poems that she presented her feelings from the beginning to the end. It is therefore right to contend that in the poem They Say Plants do not speak Rosalia De Castro used the literacy elements like personification, hyperbole, and cliches effectively to express her inner thoughts that also reflect different aspects of the Renaissance period

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De Castro visually presents her thoughts even though everything has an end, and explains that there is a bright side to everything especially the natural thing. De Castro speculates the positive perspective which is the best end when it comes to the result. It is appealing how De Castro refers to herself as an incurable sleepwalker, and to her, everything she sees is part of a dream that dwells on in the poem. She cannot live without it and that she dwelled on it highly and trapped there. At the same time, De Castro gives the plants the power to speak what is on her mind, as well as giving the plants the human nature (the ability to speak) which is known as personification. It is something that her mind focuses on, as she clenches on the ability to express the changes occurring across the world.

Plants cover a significant part of our nature, and as it is said, protecting plants is the beauty of nature. De Castro takes this chance to give the plants the capacity to speak (personification) and uses a critical approach to the notion that the society has against plants. De Castro believes that the plants and the animals can change the world that we are living in, and uses irony to criticize the law of order "they say plant do not speak nor the brook, nor the birds, nor the waves with their roars they whisper against me." In the poem, De Castro personifies the plant, and she emphasizes the fact that plant can speak their inner mind and express their opinion. It is the use of plants that De Castro can express her feelings and opinions as well as the fear that the age is catching up with her. To her, she is criticized by the plants referring to her like a mad person "There goes that mad woman, dreaming of the eternal spring of life and the fields, though soon enough, all too soon, she will comb grey hair and shivering, numb, see the hoarfrost shroud the meadow" The fact that she believes plants speaks to her as she walks is personification. However, through this approach, Castro can address the truth about her bitter life and the challenges that she is facing from the society. The moment the audience imagines that plants talk, their whole attention is captured, and they are ready to follow every detail of what is taking place. The only contradicting element is regarding the meaning of flowers. In the society, and in our lives, we have always associated the presence of flowers with love, and by presenting a flower to someone signifies love. However, De Castro has used a different approach when she presents flowers as the elements of fear within the society, and she has managed to capture the five senses of human beings "there goes a mad woman." (Smith pg.45)

The other common poetic device that is used by many poets is the hyperbole that is important when it comes to exaggeration as well as the creation of humor. Hyperbole is essential in creating the deeper meaning of the poem, and a much a Castro is explaining the difficulties of her life, the use of hyperbole creates humor in the poem. For instance, the waves roar, they whisper, and they murmur "They whisper about me and say "Ah, there goes the madwoman, dreaming." (Smith 45) This can be explained regarding personification, but at the same time, it is hyperbole because of the humor that it creates within the poem. The use of hyperbole also brings the content to make it easy for the reader to imagine what is happening and bring it to reality.

The most crucial element of the author is clinching on her ability to express the hostility as well as the attitude during the old age. She explains the age using words like grey hair and the white , which are the elements for a long time have been associated with the aging society "There are gray hairs in my head, there is frost on the lawns, But I press on dreaming, poor, incurable somnambulist" (Smith pg 67)The use of these words bring out the terrible things that De Castro was facing in the society as well as barrenness at the old age. There is also the mention of weakening body presenting the fact that she was losing her strength to the waning years, and that there was no much she can do in the society.

Conclusion

The enlightenment period is a period was the time when the world was emerging from the Dark Age. As much as there were changes taking place, little had occurred regarding people`s lives. In this poem, De Castro has used the literacy elements (personification, hyperbole) to explain her life in the society as an old woman. It is the age where the old faced little care from the society, and this is why De Castro was concerned with expressing her personal opinions and feelings. This is the reason it is appropriate to argue that Rosalia De Castro used the literacy elements like personification, hyperbole, and cliches effectively to express her inner thoughts that also reflect different aspects of the Renaissance period. The use of the elements have enables De Castro to bring out her inner feelings as well as alerting the audience of what he was going through as well as the other old people.

Works Cited

Smith, Michael. Rosalia de Castro: Selected Poems. New York: Shearsman Books, 2007.