This poem is about the fictional character Emma Bovary who appears in the novel Madame Bovary. Ann Fisher-Wirth narrates her tale through a 5-section poem detailing the important events Emma face. There is an omnipotent quality about this poem since it details everything from the beginning of Emma’s life to her death and to could have happened after her death. That omnipotence is especially strong in the last section where the speaker tells Emma of what will happen after her death. An experienced reader would realize that the chronology is out of order. But to those who never read Madame Bovary, it will not change their experience. The subject and the theme will still be the same: the lamentations for a tragic female. The stanzas in section 2 give us a first-person perspective seemingly from the speaker’s point of view, or it could be from the viewpoint of Emma.
“Letter to Emma Bovary” by Ann Fisher-Wirth
Apr 11th, 2017 by pang17