Elena

“Elena” is written in free verse, with no regular meter or rhyme pattern. Since the poem consists of words spoken by an immigrant woman with limited English skills, it logically employs simple diction (word choices) and sentence structure. The poem contains many simple declarative sentences limited to one line or less: “My Spanish isn’t enough” (Line 1); “I bought a book to learn English” (Line 12). Only three sentences span more than two lines. The first one (Lines 2-5) refers to the family’s old life in Mexico, and its complex structure, consisting of multiple clauses, reflects Elena’s original confidence before the family’s move to America. The middle part of the poem, where Elena explains her lack of English proficiency, is marked with brief, choppy sentences. However, once Elena has decided that she is tired of being embarrassed and must improve her English, her sentences become correspondingly more complex in both structure and meaning. The penultimate sentence, expressing Elena’s embarrassment, spans four lines (Lines 15-18), and the final sentence, stretching over five lines, is the longest sentence in the whole poem (Lines 18-22). The last and lengthiest sentence is also loaded with complex meaning, conveying Elena’s determination to turn her shy efforts at learning English into multifaceted personal growth as a mother and as a woman (see “Being Deaf” in Symbols & Motifs).