UNGRATEFULNESS TO BE THE
SELF IN ANNIE FINCH’S
“CHANGING WOMAN”
Name : Nur Dwi Andriani
Register Number : 161010650031
Subject : Poetry
Lecturer :
Sari Fitria S.S, M.A
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LETTER
UNIVERSITAS PAMULANG
2019
CHAPTER I
I.
INTRODUCTION
There
are many people who underestimate to be grateful for what God has given to
them. They tend to regret what they have and compare it with others. Many of
them do not realize that it makes them not to be grateful and also do not
realize something that has given to them is the best thing they have. Some
experts express their opinions about gratitude, including: Ralph Waldo Emerson,
he said that we must develop the habit of being grateful for every good thing
that comes to us and we also required to always be grateful for what we have
achieved and also what we have accept; some psychologists explain gratitude in
a way that they can measure its effect, and they argue that gratitude is more
than a feeling of gratitude for something that someone has or gives to us, as
(Lacewing, 2016) said that gratitude is an emotion that is felt when you get a
goodness when it is actually not good; another explanation emphasizing its
social aspect comes from social psychology researchers, who said that:
gratitude is a positive emotion that can arise when a benefactor does something
good for himself (Algoe et al., 2016); one morality-based psychologist says
that: being grateful is not like paying for the goods sent to us but also the
response to the goods. Gratitude as a form of gratitude to the goods that have
given is also a form of generosity (Robert, 1991).
Being
grateful to be yourself is positive thing a person can do. Gratitude is also a
simple thing that someone can do for what they have and what they have
achieved. But in reality many people can not to do that. Many people still
compare what they don’t have from others so that it makes them not being
themselves or in other words they don’t believe in themselves. For Example, in
real life like a man who turns himself into a woman or a woman turns into a
man. They do not realize that what they are doing is a lack of gratitude for
what God has given to them. In addition, sometimes somebody change themselves
because they feel what they have is not enough. In fact, basically every human
being has their lack and excess each other. Be yourself is very important. You
may see the success of others as a motivation so that you can also be
successful. However, you don't have to change into them to be successful.
Everyone certainly has a creative way and idea to build themselves.
The
academic reason why we have to analyze the poem ‘Changing Woman’ is because
this poem is one of the first publications of Annie’s Poetry Witch Press which
belongs to the goddess poem. However, ‘Changing Woman’ has stolen my attention
from the beginning of reading this poem. These days, many people are not
confident in what they have because of their ungratefulness for what God has
given to them. In addition, many people who deviate by nature such as a man
likes the same sex as well as a woman. In some countries, it can be there are
freedoms in pairing, but in some countries also refuse it. Besides that,
unconfident person can be happen because they are not to be grateful for what
God has given to them such as changing parts of their body that they feel they
don’t like it. For this reason, I believe that this poem deserves to be
analyzed to take lesson of it.
Annie
Finch is a poet, translator, librettist, editor and criticism. She was born in
New Rochelle, New York on October 31st 1956. She graduated from
Yale, a master’s in Creative Writing from University of Houston, and a
doctorate from Stanford University. Finch’s works are including numerous
anthologies and textbooks, and media outlets from Voice of America to HBO’s Def
Poetry Jam has been featured with her poems. Her poems have been inspiring
musical or dance performances at venues including the Spoleto Festival,
Lawrence Conservatory, Cincinnati Conservatory Music, and New York’s
Metropolitan Museum of Art. The two opera librettos, “Lily among the Goddesses”
and “Marina”, are her works based on the life of Russian poet Marina Tsvetaeva,
which premiered at American Opera Project in New York. Spirituality, myth, sex
and childbirth are the theme of Finch’s poems. She is a practicing Wiccan. Her
poems are inspired largely by her relationship with the natural world,
especially the landscape of Maine. Her notable works are Calendars (2003) and Among
the Goddesses (2010), and her notable awards are Sarasvati Award for Poetry
and Robert Fitzgerald Award. Her literary movements are new formalism and
feminist poetry. A founder of the War Resisters League is her maternal
great-aunt, Jessie Wallace Hughan, Finch’s mother was a poet and doll artist.
Finch’s father was a conscientious objector, a scholar of Ludwig Wittgenstein,
and a professor of philosophy at Sarah Lawrence College and Hunter College. Finch
claims that her parents met at a lecture by Auden in the introduction to the
body of poetry, and her essay “Desks” shows the influences of her mother’s
example as a poet and her father book’s collection.
CHAPTER II
II.
DISCUSSION
2.1
CHANGE BECAUSE OF OTHER
PEOPLE CHANGE
“If we change as she is changing,
If she changes as we change”
(Stanza 1, Line 1-2)
The quotation above
reveals that the speaker presupposes or promotes if you and I change as she is
changing or how if she changes because you and I change. The word ‘if’ as I
found in Merriam-Webster.com dictionary is the word that used as a function
word to introduce an exclamation expressing a wish. The word ‘wish’ in English
is the hope that we know that its hope cannot possibly be fulfilled. The point
is we can never turn into someone else because of we don’t have what she has.
Also herself who can never be who we are because she does not have what we
have. Each of us has weaknesses and strengths. What we think is our weaknesses
may be it is strength for others.
“(If she changes, I am changing)”
(Stanza
2)
The function of parentheses or
bracket in British English is used to surround additional information or
explanation. In this stanza the bracket is used to provide or emphasize the
information if she changes or changes what she has then the speaker will
change. The change intended by the speaker is when she changes herself then the
speaker will not like her anymore. This is according to what I read in the
article at www.rpo. library.utoronto.ca that ‘Changing Woman’ here is the earth
goddess who changes herself to always look young. So we can conclude that the
speaker emphasizes that if she changes what she has then the speaker will also
change her attitude towards her. Basically, every change that people make will
get comments both positive and negative. Then not all changes can be received
as well as this stanza.
2.2. BE GRATEFUL TO BE YOURSELF
“Who is changing, as I bend
down to what the sky has sent us?”
(Stanza 3, Line 1-2)
The sentence in this
stanza uses a question mark which means not to ask something but rather to
state or emphasize that who actually changed. The word sky, which means
everything in the sky as we know it is the sun that shines on the earth during
the day, the moon and the stars that shine on the darkness of the earth at
night. They are gifts we have received from God who created us. The parable
that used in this stanza is intended to express who actually changed or did not
accept what God has predestined for all the beauty she has. Even rain thought
in essence is something that causes us to not be able to do something outside
but in the end there will be a beauty after the rain like rainbows and rain
water can fertilize plants. So the point is anything that we think looks bad
doesn’t mean bad. Because when you let go off what you are, you become what you
might be.
“(Is she changing, or the same?)”
(Stanza 4)
Seems like the second stanza, in
this stanza also uses bracket to emphasize whether she has really changed or
still the same. Then, in this stanza the tone that appears is hopeful. As we
can feel, the speaker expects her to be herself and not turn into someone else.
CHAPTER III
III.
CONCLUSION
Being
yourself is an important to do. Besides we can be ourselves, it is also a form
of us being grateful for what God has given to us. Don’t have to be someone
else to look beautiful, smart and so on. What we have done doesn’t mean what
other people agree with. Every human being has their own beauty, and every
human being has its own ugliness. If we think we are ugly doesn’t mean other
people think like that. If we hate what we have, may be another people can like
it. So what we think is not good according to us is not necessarily according
to others. Be yourself and develop what can be developed. The conclusion of
this poem is to be yourself and accept everything that God has bestowed. Don’t
make other people as a cause to change because you want to have what they have,
but make other to be a motivator to be a good person. There are many people who
are successful but you need to know that the success achieved by one person with
another is not the same. Everyone has a different storyline to success even
though they both struggle with joy and sorrow. You may get inspiration from
successful people but you will not be able to duplicate his success. All you
need to do is, for example, her fighting spirit in achieving the success she
has achieved. In addition, many people misinterpret the intention of being
yourself. Actually, the purpose of being yourself is that we have to maximize
the potential that exists in ourselves so that we can show the uniqueness that
we have. The most important thing is that we cannot follow others without our
own uniqueness. Sometimes, we feel doubt when going to do something. If you
have doubts, you should ask yourself about the purpose of your life. What you
do must be in accordance with the purpose of your life.
REFERENCES
https://positivepsychology.com/gratitude-appreciation/
https://poets.org/poet/annie-finch
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_Finch
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/
https://writingcommons.org/using-parentheses
https://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poems/changing-woman
https://www.poemhunter.com/annie-finch/biography/
Changing Woman
If we change as she is changing,
if she changes as we change
(If she changes, I am changing)
Who is changing, as I bend
down to what the sky has sent us?
(Is
she changing, or the same?)
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