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  • Essay / A Verbal Portrait of Sexuality in Gertrude Stein's Preciosilla

    As with many poems, a first reading of Gertrude Stein's Preciosilla may leave many readers confused as to its intention or message. From a technical standpoint, it is difficult to make sense of the language because the entire poem is made up of unrelated words that are constantly juxtaposed, and Stein does not adhere to traditional grammatical rules in his text. However, it is this distinct, if seemingly obscure, style of writing that allows the true meaning of the poem to shine through. Preciosilla, while difficult to decipher at first, is about sexuality in all its complex glory. To explain this, Stein focuses less on content and more on linguistic form in order to construct sexuality as a multifaceted concept. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essayCubist influenceStein, influenced by the Cubist movement that occurred around the time of his writing, applies this style of art in Preciosilla with emphasis on the structure of sexuality, rather than a simple description of it. Cubist painters created a distinctive art form by attempting to express objects and ideas from multiple points of view simultaneously. In the same way, Stein depicts sexuality from different angles. At one place in the poem she says "...to close is life" (line 5), suggesting the end of life and negative images. On the other hand, in another place, she mentions: “It's so rosy, so stuttering rosy” (line 11). Here, readers see sex as something light and positive. Throughout the poem, Stein integrates these different viewpoints, conveying the idea that sexuality is only made real because of conflicting beliefs about it. Much as is the case in Cubism, Stein presents sexuality as if it were fragmented rather than coherent and complete, but still also a whole. Cubist painters typically used geometric shapes in their artwork to indicate the many aspects of what they were painting. Stein also does this by rejecting any particular one-sided view. Instead, it combines these “fragments” to create a unified whole. Almost none of the phrases in the poem have a clear and understandable meaning. It's almost as if these strings of words are themselves fragments, pieces of various sentences or expressions put together to create an entirely different whole. This is already evident from the first sentence of the poem: "In victory, all the beagles in the group who have a lime cousin sign and arrange a weeding match to presume a certain point of ecstate for ecstate a certain lint to ecstate a sap lean prime lo and firm, that’s life” (lines 2 to 5). Metaphorical Language Stein also depicts sexuality through metaphors, further presenting it as a complex concept. The meaning and interpretation of many words in the poem are initially lost due to the juxtaposition of seemingly different words. Such examples would include “the knot of sleep” (line 15) and “the nobles bleed two seats, two seats at the end” (lines 16-17). What Stein does in many of these sentences is use metaphorical images, in which one thing represents another. The "knot" may be an image of two lovers embracing during sex, while the "two seats" most likely refers to the anatomy of two lovers. A recurring example of metaphor is Stein's use of the word "lily." Its constant appearance throughout the poem indicates that it is a symbol of the female genitalia. “Lily” evokes images of a.