BLAZE by Christine West

HL sample response #1

The poem Blaze by Christine West tells the story of a woman accidentally burning her
house down by cooking in the kitchen, yet the poet manages to use a fairly ordinary plot
as a way of explaining larger ideas through the use of naturalism. Manipulating literary
devices such as personification, West makes the fire symbolic of the woman’s struggle in
her society, as she feels the need to release her own fire, this hunger and struggle also
found in the tone and structure of the poem.

The poet uses the tone and its shifts to represent the chronological order of the situation
and the reaction it brings out of the woman. Initially, West uses a satirical tone to open up
the poem. By using irony with the woman standing “gossiping at the door with (…) the
insurance man,” West sets a light and humorous tone which contributes to a similar mood
and atmosphere of the poem. It provides foreshadowing to later events but contrasts with
the tones in those stanzas. This light mood continues into the second and beginning of
third stanzas but through visual imagery the tone changes slightly. With descriptions such
as “her white border” meaning the fence of her house, and actions like “she waves to a
neighbour sailing out with her pram,” it gives the reader the interpretation that the setting
of the poem is idealistic and her actions are part of her routine considering she does them
with only half her attention. However, it is through West’s connotations of winter that it
gives the reader a sense that something’s not quite right in this neighbourhood. Winter is
ordinarily a season that people don’t look forward to because of its low temperature and
dead nature. These connotations are shown through “her white border” that have “shades
of everything cold”, and the original light-hearted tone falls because of this. However, the
tone changes when there is a shift in stanza 3 as the fire begins. This originally peaceful
and bright tone changes into something more serious and exhilarating. Where the house
was called “dull” and the fence “cold” in the first stanza, the poet now uses personification
such as the “raging beauty” and “glorious energy” to convey the fire, creating a more
intense tone that shatters the former dreamy one. But it is after the fire, where there is
another shift that returns to the first tone, the excitement being replaced with calmness
by using more diction such as “cold meals” and how the children “whisper the relief.” The
end of the poem leaves the reader with a more hopeful tone but also dark as the woman
views the fire as a way of her being released from the isolation and dullness of her
neighbourhood.

These shifts are also similarly used with the structure of the poem. Along with the tone,
West changes the length of sentences as a way of setting the pace which in turn,
represents the woman’s mood and reaction to the fire. The sentences in the first two
stanzas are long and fluid, contributing to the dreamy tone and slow pace of the woman’s
life. It isn’t until the fire begins does it change, West changing the length of sentences to
shorter and using more punctuation as a way of representing the woman’s quick and
jumbled thinking during the fire. The pace becomes quicker as if the adrenaline has kicked
in for the woman to survive. This is also shown in dashes used in stanza 5, giving off the
idea that the woman’s thoughts are so scattered and she is so excited that she has to
interrupt herself, she has to try and explain the situation of the fire and the fascination of
it. But, like the tone, the pace slows down once the fire has ended, once the aftershock
occurs and the adrenaline vanishes. Towards the end of the poem, the sentences grow,
the use of punctuation for pauses occurs less. But there is still a representation of her
quick thinking in the anaphora of the last two lines. This repetition suggests that the fire
had just been the beginning, the kickstart of her new life and another way of directly linking
the fire to the protagonist of the poem.

Similarly, the poet uses imagery and personification as a way of portraying the symbolic
meaning behind the fire. As mentioned previously, the woman’s actions suggest that they
are routine and depicts her as more two-dimensional with her ordinary features like
chatting and smiling “at nothing much.” The fence of her house is described as a “white
border” which implies the isolation she has despite being in her own house. It gives the
impression she is trapped and is struggling because “half her attention (is on) her white
border” as if she wishes it wasn’t there. It’s only when the shift occurs and the fire starts
does the woman become more of a character. The flames, despite being dangerous, are
the ones that are conveyed through romantic imagery, examples like “the raging beauty”
and the flames “run lovingly.” They are depicted as hungry and are in deep contrast to
the description of the “stony-faced husband” making it ironic because it is more traditional
and common of humans to show emotion rather than inanimate objects. This
personification of the flames gives more life to them in comparison to the other humans
in the poem. It also suggests that where the woman has “no excuses” and becomes more
robotic in her way of life, the human actions of the fire are the woman’s own way of
comparing herself to the fire and releasing her struggle with it as it burns down her home.
A more traditional assumption of a burning house suggests connotations of loss or of the
destruction of something important, however West uses the fire as a way of inspiring the
woman and cleansing her of this entrapment in her house. This is shown through her
leaving the “photographs, toys (and) letters” which can be used as memories and saving
the cat. The cat and “his one last little life” is an amplification of the idea that this woman
has only one life and she shouldn’t spend it in this little neighbourhood, confined to her
own house. It serves as an explanation as to why she leaves the objects that serve as
memories behind and why the poem ends with deciding to “rethink her life.” This
contributes to the larger idea that the fire is a symbol for the woman and her desire to
release her struggle and break free from this society.
The poem opens out to an ideal neighbourhood with an ordinary day and it is through
shifts with the tone and structure that the ordinariness changes to more dramatic, the
events intensifying as the poem progresses. The most compelling feature of the poem,
though an inanimate object, ironically has the most life and it is through the personification
of the flames that more character is brought to the woman, implying that the fire is a
representation of the fire inside the woman and contributing to the larger idea that the
woman is struggling with her role in society and desires a way out.