Tula ["Books are door shaped"]

Engle’s free-verse poem “Tula” is designated from her other poems with the same title by including the first line, “Books are door-shaped” (Line 1), in the title. All of Engle’s “Tula” poems in her book The Lightning Dreamer are written in the persona of Cuban abolitionist Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda, whose nickname was Tula. There are six stanzas total, with many lines just one or two words long.

In the first stanza, the central metaphor, books as transportation devices, is established. Beyond their shared rectangular shape, both books and doors symbolize a gateway or “portal” (Line 2). This diction, along with the immense and impossible distances through which the portal offers passage, introduces the fantasy motif. “Oceans / and centuries” (Lines 4-5) can be crossed with the magical doors of books. Books, like the genre of the persona poem, offer insights into other people’s thoughts, which help Tula “feel / less alone” (Lines 6-7).

The second stanza introduces conflict between Tula and her mother. The latter thinks girls who love books are “unladylike” (Line 10) and unattractive. Pushing this gender norm onto her daughter is represented by Tula’s mother locking up the books in a cabinet.