Sia Figiel was born in 1967 in Western Samoa. She was the raised in several of its villages, which are the roots of her literary work. As a teenage she came to New Zealand to finish her schooling and has since been acknowledged as Samoa's first contemporary woman writer.
As a Samoan poet and novelist Sia is well known for her performance poetry, and she is a frequent guest at literary festivals. She has written three novels, a book of poetry and a performance poetry CD.
In 1997 Sia's first book, Where We Once Belonged won the Best First Book Award of the Commonwealth Writers Prize. The Pacifica Press then suggested that Where We Once Belonged "attempts to structurally represent one of its central themes which is the dominance of the community identity and the continuity over the identity and growth of the individual."
This less 'traditional' narrative structure is something we have identified with a lot of Sia's work, which has been translated into more than eight languages, including German, French, Dutch and Portuguese.
Sia is currently living in Utah, where she is a language and culture consultant to MANA Academy, which opened in September of this year; however her writer's residences include The University of Hawaii, The University of Technology, Sydney and The University of the South Pacific, among several others.
Sia's poetry speaks of her indigenous origins. The speaker describes hearing about Wordsworth's poem in "form three literature class", where 'she' whom we can only assume is the speakers teacher "made us memorise you" referring to Wordsworth. Although Sia's biography states that she finished her schooling here in New Zealand, within the poem she makes reference to physically staring at "the auke bush next to the mango tree". A line we would unlikely associate being spoken in reference to New Zealand. It's more than evident that Sia's poetry springs from her deep love for her homeland, its culture, its beliefs and its values.
Context
"Apologies Mr
Wordsworth
But I too wandered
Lonely as a cloud"
William Wordsworth begins his 1807 poem Daffodils with the line "I wandered lonely as a could". Within his poem Wordsworth describes himself as a "cloud" that floats over hills, presenting the idea of seclusion. As human form Wordsworth prefers seclusion but the "crowd" of daffodils bewilders his senses. Similar to Wordsworth, Sia Figiel begins her poem with the line "Apologies Mr Wordsworth but I too wandered lonely as a cloud". Like Wordsworth Figiel has chosen to use the word "wandered" as opposed to just "walked around". In its metaphorical use, the term "wandered" symbolises the feeling of purposeless and directionless in general. When the speaker mentions that she "wandered lonely as a cloud" it feels like she is projecting her loneliness onto the clouds. When we think of the clouds, we think of them as being lofty and airy and far above the rest of the world. It seems as though initially the speakers thoughts are this way too.
"Because they
Too
Put a smile
On my face
Whenever
I lie
On my mat
Oft
In pensive mood"
Within the poem the speaker conveys the memory of beautiful things (daffodils) as a comfort after the experience of viewing them has ended. Viewing them in a metaphorical sense because the speaker can only draw on her imagination to reproduce the joy of the event and to remember what she was feeling at the time. Figiel has the reader believing that the pleasure of seeing the daffodils with her "inner eye" is of the same quality and intensity, or better than the real, momentary perception of them, and because of this her initial loneliness is replaced by joy.
No comments:
Post a Comment