Date of Award

Spring 2022

Document Type

Open Access Thesis

Department

English Language and Literatures

First Advisor

Samuel Amadon

Abstract

While magical realism steps forward as guiding hand within the manuscript, these poems are interested in re-purposing the myth of the rabbit in the moon in order to explore family history and legend. The organizational force is an emotional narrative that gives shape to a manuscript full of poems interested in the speaker and their personality. The speaker invites, pleads, begs, borrows, and steals all for the purpose of being both interesting and understood. Form, particularly the sonnet, is another noticeable element with the second chapter comprised of poems entirely dedicated to the reader where the speaker comes forward onto an empty stage with twelve “chairs.” The sonnet form returns in a later chapter to act as capsule a specific character, the songbird. Music comes through in references and titles, often subverting the expectation of romance in favor of familial love and bonds. There is a central question of the relationship of obligation, inheritance, and luck. Particularly when it involves the relationship of mother to daughter, grandmother to granddaughter, and the interplay of three generations of women who also represent a gradient of Mexican American identity informed by recent immigration.

Rights

© 2022, Nicole McCaffety

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