The Island Within

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2012

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Form and Meter

“The Island Within” has two stanzas, and both contain free verse, with no established end rhyme scheme. The poem does employ enjambment and instances of internal rhyme to create a sense of musicality that carries the reader through the poem. The poet Richard Blanco acknowledges that the influence of poets who favor long lines and rich imagery, and he employs some of those formal characteristics in “The Island Within.” Blanco does not use any formal end rhymes, but internal rhymes do appear. For example, in Line 1 the rhyme “porch light” (Line 1) echoes in Line 3 with the phrase “last night” (Line 3) creating a ringing music from Lines 1 to 3.

Many of Blanco’s lines are enjambed, which gives the poem a sense of speed and urgency and places emphasis on certain enjambed words. Enjambment creates a feeling of being carried quickly from one line to the next as there is usually no punctuation to stop the reader at the end of the line. When enjambment is present in a free verse poem, enjambed lines add a sense of form within the unstructured poem. An example of an enjambed line in Blanco’s “The Island Within” is in Line 3 when the speaker states, “the bare oaks / branching into the sky” (Lines 3-4). By breaking the line before the word “branching” (Line 4), Blanco creates a swift bridge from one line to the next, smoothly carrying the reader forward.

Additionally, enjambment can place more emphasis or stress on a single word that the poet would like to call attention to. For example, Line 19 ends with the word “steal” (Line 19). The reader is unsure of what Behar is stealing until the following line when the speaker clarifies, “every memory ever stolen from you” (Line 20). By breaking Line 19 on the word “steal” Blanco also sets up Line 21, in which he returns to the idea of stealing as a descriptor of Behar, stating, “You’re a thief anyone would forgive” (Line 21). Blanco uses enjambment in this way throughout “The Island Within” to emphasize and draw the reader’s attention to specific words that carry important meaning and significance.

Apostrophe

“The Island Within” is written as an address to an absent person, which is the definition of apostrophe. Blanco notes in the epigraph that this poem is dedicated “for Ruth Behar.” Behar, however, is not actually present in the poem. The poem is told through the frame of a memory in which the speaker is remembering an evening spent at Behar’s house. Therefore, the “you” in the poem is an example of the literary device apostrophe, in which the speaker speaks to an absent subject.

The effect of apostrophe contributes to a tone of longing and nostalgia because the person or object being spoken to is usually far away. As a literary device, apostrophe works in “The Island Within,” because it is a poem about longing for a lost homeland. By addressing the poem to an absent “you,” Blanco addresses the poem to a past that no longer exists and can never exist again. Looking at the poem through this lens, it’s possible the “you” in the poem could be defined more abstractly as Cuba, culture, or even the notion of home. The poem is filled with loss, heartbreak, and longing for a place “1,600 miles / away” (Lines 13-14), but also for a place that only exists in one’s imagination. In Line 31, the speaker states, “I confess I pitied you, still trying to reach / that unreachable island within the island / you still call home” (Lines 31-33), further establishing a mood of wistfulness as someone tries to reach something just beyond one’s reach.

Reference

Many cultural references in “The Island Within” establish the poem’s scene and the character’s identity. In Line 14, the speaker is sipping a “cafecito” (Line 14), a type of espresso that originated in Cuba; the drink is often sweetened with sugar or milk. “Homemade flan” (Line 15) is a traditional Cuban dessert, full of caramel flavors that offset the bitterness of the aforementioned coffee.

In the second stanza, the poem references specific neighborhoods and streets where Behar grew up like “Guanabacoa” (Line 24) and “Calle Aguacate” (Line 24). When the speaker references how Behar might “pray the Kaddish” (Line 27) “at the synagogue in El Vedado” (Line 28), they establish Behar’s religion and that she grew up in a Jewish township. These specific geographical references paint a map of Cuba for the reader, establishing the speaker’s intimacy with the culture and the placeUnderstanding these cultural references adds texture to the poem. By using Spanish (“cafecito,” Line 14; “arroz-con-leche,” Line 41), Blanco places the poem in both cultural worlds of Cuba and Michigan. Much like the speaker and Behar, the poem is both in America and in Cuba. These specific references give the reader a true sense of Cuba, emphasizing the themes of home and exile and a mood characterized by longing, nostalgia, and loss.