Abellera, Gee-Chelle St.

Agnes

Juntilla, Mary Kris Ms. Cupilyn Banoyo

Lanoza, Jessica 21st Century Literature

Las-ay, John Iann

Mother’s Lullaby, i carry your heart with me (i carry it in) and The Hand of Friendship:

An Intertextual Analysis

“Loving someone more than anything means that distance only matters to the mind, not

to the heart.” Loving someone does not measure the distance how far he/she is, the important

thing is you love him/her whole heartedly. This quotation and saying signifies both of the literary

texts and the art form for it says that their love for the one they love is eternal.

Love is important in our lives. We are made because of the love of God for us, but how

can we relate the given literary texts and the chosen art form to the current situation in our

society? With the given text Mother’s Lullaby by Danny Castillones Sillada, he is a Filipino

multidisciplinary artist, thinker and writer, he is a surrealist painter, sculptor and installation

artist, philosopher, multilingual poet, essayist, musician (singer-instrumentalist-songwriter-

composer), performance artist, photographer, and an amateur indie filmmaker. He is also a critic-

writer on art and culture in Manila Bulletin, one of the leading daily papers in the Philippines. In

1996, at the age of 33, he became a full-time artist and literary writer exploring different fields

and mediums in aesthetics, from painting and sculpture to installation art, from philosophical

writings to poetry, from music to performance art, from photography to short films and
documentary. His poem talks about the love of a mother to her child. In spite of her distance

from her child, she still love them and hoping to come back home when the right time comes.

For the second literary text, we have another poem entitled, i carry your heart with me (i carry it

in) by E.E. Cummings. E. E. Cummings was born Edward Estlin Cummings in 1894 in

Cambridge, Massachusetts. He died in North Conway, N.H., in 1962. Cummings earned a B.A.

degree from Harvard in 1915 and delivered the Commencement Address that year, titled "The

New Art." A year later he earned an M.A. degree for English and Classical Studies, also from

Harvard. Cummings was a fine artist, playwright and novelist. During his lifetime Cummings

wrote over 900 poems, two novels, four plays, and had at least a half dozen showings of his

artwork. His poem talks about how he/she love his/her lover no matter how far he/she is.

Distance could never hinder his/her love, for he/she believes that he/she carries the heart of

his/her lover anywhere he/she goes. Lastly for the art form, we’ve chosen the painting namely,

The Hand of Friendship painted by Patrick J Murphy. Irish Artist, Patrick J. Murphy, was born,

lives and creates in Belfast and has painted and exhibited for over 15 years. He studied Art and

Art History at Belfast Institute of Higher Education and has a B.A. honours degree from

Liverpool John Moores University England. His work has appeared in the U.S. TV shows

'DIRTY SEXY MONEY', 'TWINS', and 'WITHOUT A TRACE'. Work also appears in the

movie 'MY BLUEBERRY NIGHTS'. Exhibitions include the: AT6 Gallery, FRANCE. Agora

Gallery, New York, U.S.A. Karen Taylor Art Gallery, London, ENGLAND. Greenlane Gallery,

IRELAND. Murphy’s painting shows the tight friendship between two people. Even if they are

far from each other, they still manage to be with each other and may possibly have contact with

each other. Just like the other two literary texts, distance could not hinder the friendship they

had. To relate these two literary texts and an art form to the current situation in the society, I
could relate them to those parents who are working abroad or to those OFW. Being an OFW is a

big decision to make, you need to orient yourself first for all the possibility effects that would

happen. Like for example, if you are a parent you need to be brave because you will be gone for

a while for your children. You will not see them for years but if it is for their own sake why not

take a risks. I chose this kind of situation for all of the literary texts and the art form have

similarities on this situation. All of them have the same story to tell, in spite of the distances from

each other, they still love each other and will always be for their loved ones.

The two literary texts, Mother’s Lullaby and i carry your heart with me have similarities

first in the characters. Characters because both of the protagonist have a big heart, and loving to

their lovers in spite of the challenges they face. The characters action and feeling to their lovers

were consistent until the poem ends. It is because the emotion of the character is still present at

the end and you can feel their love towards their lover and child. The character helps on

revealing/distinguishing the theme by knowing the dominant emotion you can feel into it. Due to

what the character feels, we could propose or make a theme with it. For the time and setting of

both of the poems were also the same because both of them happens on day and night and it’s

time setting to sum it up, it symbolizes that their setting was a place far from the one who were

they talking to the poem. While for the flow of the story or the plot, both of them are still the

same for it tells the same story. The Mother’s Lullaby talks about a mother whom love her

children dearly but since she was caught, she got far away from her little ones. For the poem i

carry your heart with me it talks about a person whom expressed his/her love to the one he/she

truly loves. No one or nothing can hinder his/her love for his/her lover for he/she believes that

he/she carries your heart with him/her. For the main conflict of both of the poems, we have the

circumstance. The circumstance present on both of the poems is the distance, distance because if
only they were not apart to their love ones they could hopefully live happily ever after. The main

conflict on these poems could help determine the theme of the story by knowing the challenges

what the character face or undergo. With that feeling, you could make a theme through it. While

for the symbol, I could symbolize these two poems with a tree. A tree for the Mother’s Lullaby

represents the life of the baby birds. It is where do they stay and the place where do they die

waiting for their mother to come back. Also, a tree for the i carry your heart with me for it states

that it also symbolizes his/her life. It was his/her life because just like a tree it also grows and got

matured and time will come it will also be gone. Lastly, the theme of both of the poems is that

“Loving someone more than anything means that distance only matters to the mind, not to the

heart.” I chose this kind of theme because as you were to analyze both of the poems, even though

they were far from each other, they still manage to get in touch and still love them no matter

what. Just like in the theme chosen, distance could not hinder your love to somebody else, if you

could see this as a conflict it would be only on your mind but in your heart nobody and nothing

could make you apart.

Intertextuality between poems needn't be overly difficult if you break it down into

segments beforehand. Technically speaking, to compare two poems means to find the similarities

between them, but it could also mean to discuss in detail any insightful similarity or difference.

For an example, let us define the literary texts and the art form, Mother's Lullaby by Danny

Sillada, I carry you mu heart by E.E Cummings and the painting The Hand of Friendship by

Patrick J Murphy. Let us use this poems to define the literary techniques being used. In literary

texts, it may interact with one another in various ways, including influence, allusion and

intertextuality. First thing to do is to analyze the imagery. All of the poems used imagery. The

poem "Mother’s Lullaby" used imagery such as birds instead of humans to describe the
challenge of the mother bird longing to her baby birds. The poem "i carry your heart" used

imagery such as the "tree of life" it's a romantic cliché we've probably heard a thousand times.

But the one Cummings refers to is like a super tree of life, since it grows "higher than soul can

hope or mind can hide." It's also founded on love, which makes it even more mysterious and

extraordinary. So his tree of life is also a tree of love. Lastly, for the painting, The Hand of

Friendship the imagery being used was the cliff to describe their distance from each other. But in

spite of that, they still love each other and is longing for each other’s presence. Other similarities

of the art form to the two literary text are the characters, setting, plot, conflict, symbol and as

well as the theme. The characters because all of them had a protagonist of longing to their

children, love ones or to their friends. Setting for all of them happens on day and night and its

flow of their story are also similar because they contain a conflict of circumstance which is the

distance. Since they have the same conflict they have the same flow of the story, similar of how

they would overcome this trial and how do they accept it in their lives. Also, all of the characters

are longing to their love ones but in spite of that, it does not hinder their love to each other no

matter how far you are to them. For the symbol and theme, it is still the same with the two

literary texts, symbol for the distance and the theme was all about distance could not hinder to

the two lovers who are loving each other truthfully and eternally.

Finishing it, we had realized that the intertextuality among the two literary texts and an

art form was a lot. We identified most of the elements of fiction and successfully stated it. We

also realized that it is possible to find similarities between the literary texts and art form, also one

of the most important thing we realized is that we have gained knowledge and lessons from it. It

teaches us what a true love is, how we are loved by our mother, and how true friendship works.

This feeling or bond or whatever you call it only becomes true if you are willing to sacrifice
everything with all your heart. Like distance, distance is only a small thing as what I had said on

my quotation distance only matters on the mind not on the heart.

Mother’s Lullaby

By: Danny Castillones Sillada

One day a mother bird was caught

And placed inside a rattan cage, -

“My little ones, I won’t be long.”

It cried with comforting song.

Day and night, the mother bird

Continued singing to a distance nest,

As if telling the little ones to wait

Until they died in a peaceful sleep!

By: E.E. Cummings

i carry your heart with me (i carry it in my heart)

i am never without it (anywhere i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done by only me is your

doing, my darling)

i fear

no hate (for your are my fate, my sweet)

i want no world (for you are beautiful you are my world, my true)

and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant and whatever a sun will always sing is you.

here is the deepest secret nobody knows (here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud and

the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)

and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart.

i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)

Painted by: Patrick J Murphy

Danny Castillones Sillada (2003). Biography, Multidisciplinary artist Danny Castillones Sillada.
Retrieved on September 13, 2016 from http://dannysillada.weebly.com/biography.html

Garry Gamber (2016). I carry your heart with me, about the poem by E.E. Cummings. Retrieved
on September 13, 2016 from
http://www.streetdirectory.com/travel_guide/103675/poetry/i_carry_your_heart_with_me_about
_the_poem_by_e_e_cummings.html

Patrick J Murphy (2007). Canvas Prints by Patrick J Murphy. Retrieved on September 13, 2016
from http://pixels.com/profiles/patrick-j-murphy/shop/canvas+prints