The Century Quilt Summary

Momentos from one’s childhood or life events often keep one grounded to their roots. In Marilyn Nelson Waniek poem “The Century Quilt” the speaker discusses her momento, a quilt, and the impact it has on her, her grandmother, and her sister’s childhood. Through vivid images of the quilt’s details and the fluid structure of Waniek’s shifts of verb tenses, the narrator describes the importance of childhood, yet that we cannot hold onto these moments forever, like her quilt.

The patterns, colors, and images are sewn into the quote vividly represent the speaker’s childhood and what she cherishes from it. Her family, each representing a color, made her childhood was it was and she acknowledges the wonder of that. Her father’s “burnt umber pride” is parallel to the “six Van Dyke brown squares” upon the quilt. The “yellow brown of [her] Mama’s cheeks” represents her “ochre gentleness.” Each patch represents something the speaker cherishes and it is a

part of her “childhood of miracles.” The century quilt was an important part of the speaker’s childhood and her parallels between the quilt and her family develop this meaning. Each square of the quilt also had a gum leaf; in the final line of the poem, the speaker recognizes this is similar to “the pattern of leaves.” Her childhood has now faded away, but she still has her treasured quilt to hold on to and remind her of the wonders of previous events.
Similarly, life is like the pattern of leaves previously described as it never stops changing.

As the poem progresses, so does the speaker’s story. She never stops or backtracks because life does not either. The speaker’s shift from past tense to hypotheticals further develops the continuations of life, and how one must look ahead to the future. Her childhood has always faded away like her Meema’s, and it’s time for new experiences. Her “Meema must have, under her blanket, dreamed she was a girl again.” The blanket, of Indian origin that represented her history, did not protect her Meema from growing up, and she cannot go back to previous moments or eras. Even though Meema “dreamed” and wished the quilt does not possess magical properties, rather just the comfort of knowing she’ll remember these precious memories. The speaker’s wondering of her Meema through hypothetical statements also reflects her inability to go back in time and relive the past. However, her quilt or Meema’s blanket capture memories and keep them

safe.
Solely through the imagery of colors and the shift of tenses, Waniek conveys the never-ending clock of life. Neither she nor her grandmother could go back to life to relive their childhood events, even with the help of the century quilt. Luckily, through their special memento, they are able to remember their childhoods and reflect on past experiences to benefit them in the future.