She/
When I was small,
we joined a field trip together.
`
We passed through the
shadows of tall trees,
then she sat on the
grass, stretched and yawned.
`
She combed my hair
while saying do’s and don’t
on my face.
Her hair was short
and beads of sweat formed in her forehead
because she ran
after me.
`
I saw myself
in her dark brown eyes when she
knelt in front of me.
`
She wiped my dirty knees
with wet towel;
her hands were warm
as she pat powder on my face, back and chest.
`
She gave me my snack
and asked me to
behave while eating.
`
Then I ran away from
her again,and shared my food
with my playmates.
`
Now,now that she thinks
I’m all grown up,
All she does is
enter my room without
permission
and leave me a kiss in the middle of my dream.
`
And me,
dreaming
how she stroke my hair
while saying do’s and dont’s
on my face.
Discussion:
Structuralism makes both the reading the particular texts and the reading of particular cultures behind the text: through semiotics, structuralism leads us to see everything as ‘textual’ that is, composed of signs, governed by conventions of meaning, ordered according to a pattern of relationships.
Structuralism approach our imaginative world is structured of, and structured by, binary oppositions. These binary oppositions were used to describe fields of cultural thought.
In the poem, the binary opposition there is the comforter (she) and the speaker. Clearly, the speaker has a close connection to where s/he addresses the poem. In my intention of writing it, “she” is actually the mother of the speaker. In Filipino society (and to some/many other societies), women as mothers are depicted in a particular pedestal such as giver of life, loving, caring and empathic. The mother and child relationship in the poem is the binary opposition in it. The mother is presented as “master” of the speaker’s (kid’s) life. It is like a master and follower relationship.
In Structuralism, meaning is not the identification of the sign with object in real world, but it is generated by difference among signs in signifying system. It forms the basis of semiotics, the study of signs, where sign is a union of signifier and signified.
In the poem, the pronoun “she” who is obviously a mother (for me) is a sign in a real world, signifying its being a woman through “motherhood” by showing motherly attributes to her child.
