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Transcript

Marcia Douglas was born in 1961 in UK with Jamaican parents. She moved to Jamaica and grew up in it's rural parts. She left Jamaica in 1990 to the Ohio State University for master of Fine arts And creative writing. She was awarded with a PhD in African American and Caribbean Literature in 1997. The poem she wrote was a memory about her time growing up in Jamaica.

What is it about?

thank you! :)

"Electricity comes to cocoa bottom"

A poem by MArcia douglas

written in a way that makes it

appealing to children, but its also

suitable for anyone to read and

understand what the people of

"Cocoa Bottom" are feeling

Purpose

  • at the beginning of the poem the tone is dark and mysterious because the characters are waiting, knowing that they will be in complete darkness soon
  • however, once the electricity comes back (second stanza), the tone shifts to being joyful and vivid to reflect the feelings of the speaker

the poem was written to show the

speakers memory of when they first

saw an electric light, and how they

have remembered it as a very special

event

What is the deep meaning?

about the author!

The author wanted to capture a moment that may sound normal, but was very special to her then. She wanted to describe what her childhood was like by making this event of the the electric lights being seen in the dark special. To a child, these kinds of things may seem very exciting, and that is what Douglas wanted to communicate.

the poem has no specific genre,

but it is written in a style that emphasizes that it is from the POV of a child, with lots of imagery and repetition

literary

devices

  • the form is quite irregular, there is no rhyme and the lines are all different lengths, as are the stanzas
  • there are lots of punctuation symbols

'it was too late' (line 38)

'fireflies waited in the shadows, they lanterns off' (lines 10-11)

'breeze...held its breath' (line 14)

'camped' & 'filled with oil' (lines 3, 4)

'waiting for sunset' (line 5)

The children were ready to stay there for a long time,

because they really wanted to see the lights in the dark.

This is personification, because the breeze is not a living

thing and it cannot actually hold its breath.

It means that everything was calm, there was no

wind as everyone and everything waited for the lightshow.

This is an example of a metaphor and imagery. It

communicates that even the fireflies stopped glow and

waited for the electricity to come on.

Not a literary device - describes how although the

moment was so precious, no one captured it in a

photograph.

Once it was over, it was over and the sort of sad

mood returned once again.

It is ironic because they are waiting for the

sun to leave so that they can see light.

in the poem..

Style and Genre

Form

Tone

Audience

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