17 pages • 34 minutes read
Ada LimónInstructions on Not Giving Up
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2017A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Insubstantial Sweets
Limón compares the “cherry limbs” (Line 3) of the “crabapple tree” (Line 2) to confections, particularly “cotton candy” (Line 4) and “taffy” (Line 7). These descriptions give a sense of the blossoms’ specific pink hue. However, these descriptions also invoke concoctions that are made by pulling or spinning. The poem is about the pull of contrasting emotions of despair and resilience, so this is effective in subtly enhancing that message. Further, both desserts’ high sugar concentration makes them insubstantial sources of nourishment. This enhances the poem’s other images of a frivolity, such as costume jewelry—“baubles and trinkets” (Line 7)—and scraps of celebratory paper—“confetti” (Line 8 (the name of which is even the Italian word for sweets, tying back to the confection motif). All this aids in revealing the steady “tree” (Line 13) and its “new leaf” (Line 13) as much more valuable.
Violence and Peace
Rarely are beautiful flowers associated with violence. However, having gone through a difficult time but now reengaging with the world, the poet finds its brash brightness startling. Limón uses the motif of violence throughout the poem’s beginning so that the final image of tolerance—“an open palm” (Line 14)—has greater weight. At the start, the “fuchsia funnels” (Line 1) are “breaking out” (Line 1), suggesting some sort of rupture. This sense of underlying threat is added to by the aggressive “shoving” (Line 3) that the pretty “cherry limbs” do (Line 4). This ultimately leads to a landscape with a “all the shock of white / and taffy” (Lines 6-7), and an “aftermath” (Line 8) of petals “strewn” (Line 8) about on the wet sidewalk. Without this motif of turbulence, the “patient” (Line 9) and “plodding” (Line 9) new “leaves” (Line 9) wouldn’t seem as vital. The turning away from violence is further solidified by the tree’s gesture of peace at the end of the poem. Its “new slick leaf / unfurl[s] like a fist to an open palm” (Lines 13-14). The shape of a “fist” (Line 14), symbolizing the fighting mode gives way to the “open” (Line 14) acceptance of “continuous living” (Line 11).
“green skin / growing over” (Lines 9-10)
Trees can be injured. They may suffer harm from impacts, insects, fires and lightning, and other extreme weather. Injury is part of the “Instructions on Not Giving Up.” The poet admits that she’s struggling with “whatever winter did to us” (Line 10). In trees, wounds can break bark and damage the tree’s ability to nourish itself. This can lead to the tree being exposed to infections that might cause decay. Similarly, the poet has been wounded by the “mess of us, the hurt, the empty” (Line 12). Trees respond to a wound by isolating the older, injured tissue with the gradual growth of new, healthy tissue, so the infection does not spread. If the injury is not taken care of, decay can lead to death. In the poem, this is similarly conveyed by the “[p]atient, plodding, a green skin growing over” (Line 10) the wound caused by “whatever winter did” (Line 10). A vigorous or actively growing tree will be successful in alleviating decay. Limón’s tree offers “a return to the strange idea of continuous living” (Line 11). The metaphor makes clear that the tree is a survivor, encouraging the poet to grow a “green skin” (Line 10), too.
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By Ada Limón
