Michael Ondaatje’s “Elizabeth” Essay

Michael Ondaatjes Elizabeth portrays the life of the English Queen Elizabeth I. Ondaatje fuses prose and poetry, fact and fiction, realism and surrealism. The effect of this fusion creates a high degree of dramatic realism. It illustrates the furtherance and transition from childhood to adulthood.The Poem opens with a boylike Elizabeth harvesting apples with her father ( mightiness Henry VIII) and Uncle Jack (fictional character) preceded by a trip to the zoo. The atmosphere suddenly shifts from going away to the zoo, to glassful fishing with Philip (King of Spain) on a cold winter day. Abruptly, the atmosphere and time shifts again to describing Marys (Elizabeths stepsister) teeth. Then jumps to a move scene with Elizabeths confidant, Tom (Lord Thomas Seymour), which is followed by the execution of Tom. Finally, the poem ends with a rather short description of Elizabeth writing poems with a nonher confidant, the Earl of Essex.The narrative lines and descriptive passages employed in Elizabeth do not flow logically and coherently from point A to point B. The names do not appear to be in historical and chronological order however, they fit into a generalized image of the political mayhem, betrayal, and punishments of that time. Elizabeths stepsister Bloody Mary Tudor, Marys husband Philip II of Spain, the unfortunate Lord Tom Seymour, and her late favorite, the Earl of Essex, were all executed.Ondaatjes Elizabeth alters from child-voice through adolescent-voice to adult-voice, catching the tone of each stage of maturity. Ondaatjes burlesque of the tones shows how Elizabeth must, through debilitating maturity and complex situations, sacrifice passion to power, as how a young ruler would have to. For example in stanza three, Philip broke the ice(19) and then he Philip kissed me Elizabeth(22), suggests that love is deceitful, and is to be avoided. Furthermore in stanza five, I kept the love in my palm till it blistered(34) connotes that love is painful and not time-worthy. Death is present and apparent in last stanzas as both threat and momento mori (remembrance for the dead), even to the young mischievous girl who hid the apple in my agency/ till it shrunk like a face/growing eyes and teeth ribs(7-9).The symbolic references to apple(2) and snake(12) conjure up the relationship between Elizabeths life to that of Adams and Eves. The evil, deceptive snake in Adam and Eve convinces Eve to eat the apple, which in the end leads to her downfall. Elizabeths father, King Henry VIII of England, compliments and sides with snake in the zoo, by describing it as Smart(16). This siding of the snake might indicate to the readers of the residing evil within him. In stanza three, the image of ice fishing and eating raw, uncooked fish implies a primitive and uncivilized way of living. A primitive life is a treacherous one.The correlation between the snake, the father, and the primitiveness can lead to a sense of danger in Elizabeths life. Elizabeth sense s the danger and evades it by becoming sly and controlling. This is indicated by the tonal transition in as she slides from thoughts of Tom, soft laughing(28) and turning / with the rhythm of the sun on warped branches, / whod hold my breast and rest it move like a snail / leaving his quick urgent love in my palm(30-34), to his beheading, and finally to her later cool(44) flirtations with white young Essex (45). Nevertheless, Elizabeths control of voice captures the readers attention.Elizabeth is one example of Ondaatjes attempts to defy traditional poetry writing. And he achieves it in the incoherency of events, the un-rhythmic lines and the irregular stanzas.