Cozy Apologia by Rita Dove (WJEC Eduqas GCSE English Literature)

Revision Note

Helen Cunningham

Written by: Helen Cunningham

Reviewed by: Kate Lee

What is the poem about?  

Written in 1999, ‘Cozy Apologia’ is a poem about the poet’s profound love for her husband, set against the arrival of Hurricane Floyd, the deadliest hurricane in US history. As the couple shelter from the storm at home, Dove depicts the strength of her emotion, proving that even ordinary love is worthy of poetic tribute. 

Language, structure and form revision

What happens in the poem? 

Language: 


Form: 


Structure: 


Stanza One

  • The speaker conveys her deep love for her husband, Fred, noting that even mundane, everyday objects such as a lamp and a pen remind her of him. She humorously imagines Fred as a medieval knight rescuing her, which perhaps playfully mocks traditional romantic clichés

Stanza Two

  • The second stanza shifts abruptly to the present, employing prosaic imagery of business, compact discs and faxes. The speaker mentions the approaching  hurricane, which she names “Big Bad Floyd”, alluding to a song from the 1960s. This thought transports her back to her teenage years, as she recalls crushes on boys who were sweet but shallow

Stanza Three

  • The third stanza personifies Hurricane Floyd as a man, “cussing” (swearing). It then describes how she and Fred are safe at home, adopting imagery that likens them to birds in nests

Stanza Four

  • The final stanza encapsulates the poem’s central themes: their love and happiness is so strong that it is almost embarrassing, yet also beautifully ordinary. As the speaker takes shelter, she feels grateful for the extra “stolen time” spent with Fred

Poems for comparison:

  • ‘Valentine’ by Carol An Duffy: unconventional love and its complexities

  • ‘Afternoons’ by Philip Larkin: ordinary life and marriage

  • ‘She Walks in Beauty’ by Lord Byron: love and adoration

  • ‘Sonnet 43’ by Elizabeth Barrett Browning: love 

  • ‘The Manhunt’ by Simon Armitage: love and external events

Key words 

Context: 

Hurricane Floyd 

Love poetry

Autobiographical 

Post-post-modern

Themes: 

Everyday life 

Love 

Men 

Nature 

Poem analysis 

'Cozy Apologia' by Rita Dove

—for Fred

I could pick anything and think of you—
This lamp, the wind-still rain, the glossy blue
My pen exudes, drying matte, upon the page.
I could choose any hero, any cause or age
And, sure as shooting arrows to the heart,
Astride a dappled mare, legs braced as far apart
As standing in silver stirrups will allow—
There you’ll be, with furrowed brow
And chain mail glinting, to set me free:
One eye smiling, the other firm upon the enemy.

This post-post-modern age is all business: compact disks
And faxes, a do-it-now-and-take-no-risks
Event. Today a hurricane is nudging up the coast,
Oddly male: Big Bad Floyd, who brings a host
Of daydreams: awkward reminiscences
Of teenage crushes on worthless boys
Whose only talent was to kiss you senseless.
They all had sissy names—Marcel, Percy, Dewey;
Were thin as licorice and as chewy,
Sweet with a dark and hollow center. Floyd’s

Cussing up a storm. You’re bunkered in your
Aerie, I’m perched in mine
(Twin desks, computers, hardwood floors):

We’re content, but fall short of the Divine.
Still, it’s embarrassing, this happiness—
Who’s satisfied simply with what’s good for us,
When has the ordinary ever been news?
And yet, because nothing else will do
To keep me from melancholy (call it blues),
I fill this stolen time with you.

Language

  • Title juxtaposes the informal and homely with a formal defence — an apologia; even if their love is comfortable rather than passionate, it is still worthy of a love poem

  • Dedication to Fred (her husband’s name) suggests this is autobiographical; the use of the pronoun “you” suggests she is addressing him directly  

  • Repetition of “any” emphasises the intensity of her feelings for her husband, who is omnipresent in her thoughts 

  • Assonance in “you”, “blue”, “exudes” adds cohesion to the lines, reflecting Dove’s connection to her beloved and creating a soothing sound, fitting for a poem about cosiness

  • “Exudes” suggests her thoughts of Fred flow as freely as the ink from her pen

  • The asyndetic list (“lamp”, “rain”, “pen”) suggests everything reminds her of him 

  • Sibilance in words such as “reminiscences”, “crushes” “worthless” “kiss” creates a whispering effect reminiscent of teenager confidences 

  • The metaphor of an eagle’s nest conjures up images of strength and power; the word “bunkered” contrasts with “perched”, which has connotations of precariousness; together they complement each other

Structure

  • Juxtaposition between the dreamlike quality of the first stanza with the reality in the second stanza

  • Caesura after “Event" marks a dramatic shift from the mundane aspects of modern life to the sudden, unpredictable arrival of a hurricane

  • Enjambment throughout the stanza reflects the chaos of the storm, interrupting the stanza in the same way the storm disrupts people’s lives

  • The use of parentheses, “(Twin desks…)” reflects their intimate and domestic cocoon

Form

  • From line 15, the disruption of the rhyme scheme parallels Dove’s wandering mind, becoming awkward as uncomfortable memories emerge

  • The rhyme “Dewey”/”Chewy” adds a comedic effect 

  • Further disruption to the rhyme reflects the disruption of the imminent storm 

  • The iambic tetrameter in the final line reinforces Dove’s comfort in her relationship

Overview of themes 

Themes 

Key quotations 

Language, form and structure 

Everyday life 

“This lamp, the wind-still rain, the glossy blue
My pen exudes, drying matte, upon the page”




“This post-post-modern age is all business: compact disks
And faxes, a do-it-now-and-take-no-risks”



“Who’s satisfied simply with what’s good for us,
When has the ordinary ever been news?”

The speaker finds reminders of her husband in everything,  even in an ordinary lamp. This contrasts with the poetic tradition of comparing a lover with grandiose images such as summer, heaven and stars. This implies the authenticity of their love and strength in the ordinary

Prosaic images of “compact disks/And faxes” portray the mundanity of life, in sharp contrast to mythological or traditional tales

The rhetorical question criticises the human tendency to value the extraordinary over the ordinary 

Love 

“I could pick anything and think of you—
This lamp, the wind-still rain, the glossy blue”


“And, sure as shooting arrows to the heart,
Astride a dappled mare, legs braced as far apart”


“We’re content, but fall short of the Divine.
Still, it’s embarrassing, this happiness—”



The first two lines are written in iambic pentameter (a common structure found in love sonnets) but lacks a fixed metrical structure throughout. This departure from the established form suggests the speaker’s love does not conform to an idealised stereotype


The allusion to "arrows to the heart" humorously parallels Cupid's influence on their love, while the next line parodies a heroic knight's tale. These grandiose genres contrast with the poem’s depiction of a warm, intimate bond that does not need elevation


Caesura highlights the contrast between their current contentment and the ideal of divine happiness. It highlights the poem's message of valuing ordinary moments of happiness, however mundane they appear 

Men 

“Astride a dappled mare, legs braced as far apart
As standing in silver stirrups will allow—”




“Oddly male: Big Bad Floyd” 






“They all had sissy names—Marcel, Percy, Dewey;
Were thin as licorice and as chewy”

Although light-hearted, the physicality of the image with its sexual undertones (“astride” with legs “apart”) denotes masculinity and sexual prowess and provides a sharp contrast with the “sissy” boys from the speaker’s teenage years 

“Oddly male” may refer to the practice of assigning female names to US hurricanes, while also highlighting Floyd’s power. The hurricane is personified and implicitly attributed with the characteristics of “Big Bad John”, a popular song from the 1960s. This links the present day to her memories of crushes in her past


Colloquial term “sissy” adds humour and lightheartedness. The simile is whimsical, suggesting the boys of Dove’s teenage crushes were insubstantial in contrast to Fred 

Nature 

“Today a hurricane is nudging up the coast”




“Floyd’s

Cussing up a storm. You’re bunkered in your
Aerie, I’m perched in mine”

“Nudging” is a surprising verb to use as it means “gently pushing”. This adds irony and helps to highlight the power of their love as mightier than the power of the storm 


Personification of the hurricane, together with the use of zoomorphism, highlights the magnitude of the approaching danger. This contrasts the portrayal of the storm as an angry individual with the serene depiction of two birds in their next

Historical and literary context 

  • Rita Dove was born in the United States in 1952, in Ohio:

    • She is a poet and essayist who has won many awards for her work 

    • In 1979 she married a German writer, Fred Viebhan, to whom she appears to dedicate ‘Cosy Apologia’

  • In September 1999, The Bahamas and the East Coast of America were hit by the hurricane, the deadliest in US history:

    • In preparation for Hurricane Floyd, 2.6 million people were evacuated 

    • The worst-hit state in the US was North Carolina, which borders Virginia (where Dove lived at the time)

    • The hurricane killed a total of 85 people and caused an estimated $6 billion in damage 

  • Although use of the internet was widespread by the end of the 1990s, compact discs and faxes were still commonplace 

Comparing poems

Look at this exam-style question about ‘Cosy Apologia’: 

How does Rita Dove present love in the poem, ‘Cosy Apologia’?

Choose one other poem from the anthology in which the poet also writes about love. Compare the way the poet presents love in your chosen poem with the way Dove presents it in ‘Cosy Apologia’. 

In your answer you should: 

  • compare the content and structure of the poems — what they are about and how they are organised 

  • compare how the writers create effects, using appropriate terminology where relevant 

  • compare the contexts of the poems, and how these may have influenced the ideas in them

How you could approach this question: 

Thesis/Essay introduction: ​​Both Dove and Duffy reject stereotypical notions of love in their poems. In ‘Cozy Apologia’, Dove focuses on the value and understated power of the ordinary over romantic clichés. Conversely, In ‘Valentine’, Duffy replaces traditional symbols of love with the unconventional metaphor of an onion. While both poets employ free verse and present their ideas using an intimate tone, they diverge in their approaches to portraying love.

Similarities  

Differences 

Both poets reject stereotypical depictions of love. Dove conveys the beauty and depth in everyday experiences. Similarly, Duffy uses an ordinary vegetable, an onion, to explore the complexity of love

In ‘Cosy Apologia’, romantic clichés of love are rejected in favour of the ordinary, however unexciting. Conversely, in ‘Valentine’, traditional symbols of love and romance are replaced by the metaphor of an onion, an extraordinary motif 

Both poets use free verse, which adds an intimate and personal tone to their poems. It enables the poets to explore unconventional ideas and challenge traditional ideas about love

Dove’s poem is set within the context of the couple’s cosy home, making it both intimate and personal. Conversely, the setting in ‘Valentine’ is unknown in order to reflect on the nature of love in different contexts and relationships

Both poets present their ideas through an intimate tone. The use of first-person further adds to this intimacy and exposes the inner thoughts and emotions of the speakers

Dove’s poem focuses on domesticity and complete contentment whereas Duffy’s poem explores the complexities of love, which can also bring pain and distress 

Thesis/Essay introduction: Both ‘Cozy Apologia’ and ‘Afternoons’ depict love within domestic, ordinary settings, but from contrasting perspectives. Dove parodies romance and presents true love as transcending it; in ‘Afternoons’, however, Larkin portrays unfulfillment after romantic love has faded away. Both poets also employ nature: Dove relishes the extra time with her husband during a hurricane, whereas Larkin uses autumn to symbolise ageing and discontent.

Similarities  

Differences 

Both poets depict love within the familiar and ordinary setting of everyday life in order to explore love within domestic spaces 

For Dove, the domestic setting is a source of cosiness and contentment; in Larkin’s ‘Afternoons’, domesticity symbolises the tediousness of life 

Both poets eschew the idea of romantic love by presenting more realistic portrayals of relationships, which adds an authenticity to their poems

In ‘Afternoons’, the excitement of romance and courting has disappeared, leaving the couples feeling unfulfilled. However, in ‘Cosy Apologia’, romance is parodied and true love is presented as transcending romance

Nature is employed by both poets. Dove uses the imagery of a hurricane to show the resilience of love amidst the storm outside. Similarly, Larkin uses the imagery of autumn to evoke the passage of time

While Dove finds solace and resilience amidst the turbulence of nature, Larkin’s poem evokes a resignation as nature reflects the changing seasons of life

Predicted exam questions to prepare for 

  • Compare the ways poets present nature in ‘Cozy Apologia’ and in one other poem from the anthology

  • Compare the ways poets present everyday life in ‘Cozy Apologia’ and in one other poem from the anthology

Examiner Tips and Tricks

In order to demonstrate your knowledge of the poems, be sure to include relevant evidence. There is no need to write long quotations (and there will not be time in the exam to do so), so try to use a few short quotes, even if single words, to support your arguments wherever you can.

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Helen Cunningham

Author: Helen Cunningham

Expertise: English Content Creator

Helen graduated from the University of Oxford with a first-class degree in English Language and Literature. Now a writer and publishing consultant, Helen has worked in educational publishing for over 20 years, helping to create books for students in almost every country in the world. Helen is passionate about education as a force for positive change and loves to travel to different countries as part of her international work.

Kate Lee

Author: Kate Lee

Expertise: English and Languages Lead

Kate has over 12 years of teaching experience as a Head of English and as a private tutor. Having also worked at the exam board AQA and in educational publishing, she's been writing educational resources to support learners in their exams throughout her career. She's passionate about helping students achieve their potential by developing their literacy and exam skills.