1. My Father in the
Navy: A Childhood
Memory
By Judith Ortiz Cofer
Presentation by Emily Dothager
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaG9SDxwPB
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2. My Father in the Navy
A childhood Memory
“Stiff and Immaculate
In the white cloth of his uniform
And a round cap on his head like a halo
He was an apparition on leave from a shadow-world
And only flesh and blood when he rose from below
The waterline where he kept watch over the engines
And dials making sure the ship parted the waters
On a straight course
Mother, brother and I kept vigil
On the nights and dawns of his arrivals,
Watching the corner beyond the neon sign of a quasar
For the flash of white our father like an angel
Heralding a new day
His homecomings were the verses
We composed over the years making up
The siren's songs that kept him coming back
From the bellies of iron whales
And into our nights
Like and evening prayer.”

3. “Stiff and immaculate
In the white cloth of his uniform
And a round cap on his head like a halo,”
- The daughter speaking in the first lines of this
poem describes her father as almost statue-
like.
- “stiff and immaculate” shows how to her he
was large, and professional (“all business”)
because she would only get to see him when
work allowed.
- The other two lines are the description of what
he had to wear on a daily basis.
- The professional attire and stature of the dad
may possibly make him seem unreachable or
intimidating.

4. “Stiff and immaculate
In the white cloth of his uniform
And a round cap on his head like a
halo,”
VOICE:
These first few words of the poem set the tone for the
voice of the poem. It shows that the daughter, who is
speaking, respects her dad very much but the respect is
almost untouchable because her dad is so “immaculate” that
he is unreachable to her when she wants him.

5. “He was an apparition on leave from a shadow-
world
And only flesh and blood when he rose from
below”
- “He was an apparition” this shows
that he was ghost-like since most of
his time was spent in a submarine
under water.
- He was not of this world, in a
sense.
- He only really existed when he
came up from the water.

6. “He was an apparition on leave from a
shadow-world
And only flesh and blood when he rose from
below”
IMAGERY:
“...apparition on leave from a shadow-world” is obviously
not really what her father was doing, but that was the
image that she had in her head. He was like a ghost to
them and this world was just a shadow passing by that
doesn’t last very long because soon he will have to go
back down below the water.

7. “The waterline where he kept watch over the engines
And dials making sure the ships parted the waters on a straight
course
Mother, brother and I kept vigil
On the nights and dawns of his arrivals,
Watching the corner beyond the neon sign of a quasar
For the flash of white our father like an angel
Heralding a new day.”
- When I read these lines I picture the
mother and children waiting anxiously
for their angel-like father dressed in
white to come home, even just for a
little while.

8. “The waterline where he kept watch over the engines
And dials making sure the ships parted the waters on a straight
course
Mother, brother and I kept vigil
On the nights and dawns of his arrivals,
Watching the corner beyond the neon sign of a quasar
For the flash of white our father like an angel
Heralding a new day.”
FIGURE OF SPEECH:
“...our father like an angel.” Referring to someone dressed in
white as looking like an angel is a common figure of speech.
Obviously, the dad did not glow like an angel, but the fact
that he wore all white made him look like an angel in the eyes
of his family.

9. “His homecomings were the verses
We composed over the years making up
The siren's song that kept him coming back
From the bellies of iron whales
And into our nights
Like an evening prayer.”
“The siren's song that kept him
coming back” refers to the siren
that would sound every time the
submarine rose to the surface
again. That is when they would
know that their dad or husband
would be returning home.
-Those sirens also made up the
verses to the song they
composed for every time they
thought about their father.

10. “His homecomings were the verses
We composed over the years making up
The siren's song that kept him coming
back
From the bellies of iron whales
And into our nights
Like an evening prayer.”
SYMBOL:
To a child a submarine is a mysterious thing. It looks like a
big whale, but everyone knows it's not. So the child speaking
in this poem refers to her dad's “transportation” as an iron
whale and the he is in the belly! The whale is just a symbol
she uses to describe the actual sub.