The following is a sample analysis of the poem “Inheritance” (English translation version) by
Alfonsina Storni. While the organization (structural -> thematic) is only a suggestion, the 5paragraph length is intended as a general guideline for your work. Remember, you need to
analyze the devices used in your poem, not repeat those I identify in Storni’s . . . it may be
that your poem uses entirely different devices. Make sure to use your vocabulary list
(posted on the wiki if you’ve lost it) to guide your identification of those devices.
You may submit your work via e-mail or as a typed hard copy. Double-spacing is required.
[INTRODUCTION] In the poem “Inheritance,” published in 1919, Argentine Alfonsina Storni
addresses her family history within the context of gender divisions by describing metaphorically
the transfer of pain from a mother to her daughter. Although the poem is physically short and
appears simple, Storni describes a phenomenon that is remarkably intense. In effect, she states
that the women of her race have inherited and absorbed the pain of centuries that their men have
been unable to understand or internalize. In order to express this, she uses a simple and regular
rhyme scheme, repetition, antithesis, and carefully selected imagery and symbols throughout the
poem.
[STRUCTURAL ORGANIZATION & SUPERFICIAL DEVICES] Storni’s poem is organized into four
stanzas of four verses each. In each stanza, three of the verses are relatively long (10 syllables / 5
feet), and the fourth is less than half that length (4 – 5 syllables / 2 feet), rendering the final verse
in each stanza very abrupt. For instance, when Storni ends the poem with, “The weight of it!” (line
12), it is clear to the reader that she wishes to emphasize the enormity of the weight the narrator
has inherited. The meter is an irregular approximation of iambic pentameter; however, this is in
an English translation of a Spanish original that was by no means iambic. The rhyme scheme
[abcb] is subtle enough to keep the poem from sounding like a nursery rhyme; however, the
simple rhymes in the second and fourth verse of each stanza grant the poem cohesion. In addition
to end rhyme in the second and fourth verses of each stanza (“say” and “they”, lines 2 / 4; “fall”
and “small”, lines 6 and 8; etc.), the translator has also employed occasional assonance (“thus
upon,” line 5) and consonance (“bitter teardrop,” line 6), and alliteration (“weak woman,” line 9).
This improves the flow of the poem, and similar devices are identifiable in the original version.
Furthermore, both versions include some repetition – from the relatively subtle repetition of
“weep” (lines 1 and 2) in the English version, to the more noticeable parallel structure of the first
verses in the Spanish, the repetition lends emphasis to the hyperbolized idea of the man who
cannot weep. Generally speaking, the organization is simple and fairly regular, giving the poem a
direct and powerful tone.
[THEMATIC LITERARY DEVICES] “Inheritance” is rich in metaphor and symbolism, and the
symbols Storni utilizes have obvious significance. In the first stanza, she explains that the men of
her race “did not weep” (line 2) and were made “of steel” (line 4), clear metaphors for the
apparent strength exhibited by these men. In the second stanza, she mentions a “bitter teardrop”
made of “poison” (line 6); this signifies the pain and suffering endured by the people of her race
throughout their history, and is passed literally from the narrator’s mother to her, the child
cradled in her arms as she cries. Additionally, the tear falls “upon [her] trembling mouth” (line 5):
the fact that the narrator’s mouth trembles indicates that she is weak or afraid, in stark contrast to
the steely men of the first stanza. This metaphor for weakness is extended to the final stanza, in
which the narrator complains that her “wretched soul cannot support / The weight” (lines 11 –
12) of the suffering she has inherited from her mother.
[MAIN IDEAS OR THEMES] In spite of the superficial characterization of men as strong and
women as weak in the poem, it is evident that Storni’s tone is somewhat ironic. Although the
mother and daughter (narrator) in the poem are weak and bent beneath the burden of “the pain of
ages infinite” (line 10), this is because they have accepted and endured the pain that glinted off the
men’s steely façade. This is made clear to the reader in line 9, when women are described as
“born all grief to comprehend”: it is not that the men are stronger than the women, but rather, that
they deny the pain and suffering, whereas women acknowledge, comprehend, and thereby inherit
or internalize it. Perhaps the men are only able to keep from weeping because they rely upon the
women to carry them through times of trouble and darkness. Or perhaps the unbearable burden
to which Storni refers represents woman’s awareness that she is bound by cultural inheritance to
bear the brunt of suffering, put upon her by men.
[CONCLUSION] Storni’s brief poem, like the venomous teardrop it describes, is laden with the
potent grief suffered by its narrator. Without launching into a critique of men or the role of
women in the Argentina she knew in the early 20th century, she nevertheless conveys a profound
awareness of and sympathy for the plight of her gender. Women, as characterized by Storni, are
destined to bear an immense weight of sadness that men can neither bear themselves, nor even
comprehend. Because she does not detail the nature of the suffering, it is impossible to say
whether it has been thrust upon women intentionally by men. What is clear, however, is that the
poem contains no glimmer of hope for escape from that colossal burden. “Inheritance” is a
powerful piece, as much in its description of an agony suffered by generations of women, as in its
implication that such agony will continue to be passed down from mother to daughter,
indefinitely.
Inheritance
You said to me: “My father did not weep,
Nor my grandfather weep.” I heard you say:
“No man of all my race has ever wept;
of steel were they.”
And thus upon my trembling mouth I felt
The poison of your bitter teardrop fall,
Worse potion than my lips have ever quaffed
From a cup so small.
Weak woman, born all grief to comprehend,
I drank the pain of ages infinite;
But oh, my wretched soul cannot support
The weight of it!
Translated by Jessie Read Wendell
Peso ancestral
Tú me dijiste: no lloró mi padre;
Tú me dijiste: no lloró mi abuelo;
No han llorado los hombres de mi raza,
Eran de acero.
Así diciendo te brotó una lágrima
Y me cayó en la boca . . . Más veneno
Yo no he bebido nunca en otro vaso
Así pequeño.
Débil mujer, pobre mujer que entiende,
Dolor de siglos conocí al beberlo.
Oh, el alma mía soportar no puede
todo su peso.