Virgina Moreno’s “Batik Maker” starts aptly with literary duplicity. The title is metonymic words which suggest that the entire poem is about the Art maker or the one who makes an art. However after reading the first stanza, it becomes apparent that the title per se depicts what the poem is really about. The poem initially appears elusively unfussy, easy to grasp and to understand. But in the course of close reading, the poem displays its complexity and ambiguity. First, complexity in terms that it gives a picture of complicated nature of poem which is difficult to analyze and understand, likewise, it is ambiguous that causes uncertainty and confusion to the readers. Consequently, the use of Formalist approach is suitable for a better understanding of the poem because it offers intense examinations of the relationship between the poem’s form and meaning, emphasizing the subtle complexity in how a work is arranged.
Moreno’s Batik Maker displays a lucid example how a particular set of images can open out to themes in the way that it satisfies the readers’ senses, instinctive desire for order and the thematic statement of readers’ intellect and moral sensibility. The introductory line of the poem—“Tissue of no seam and skin”— acquaints the readers to ...
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