"How Things Work" by Gary Soto, is a piece of literature that explains in a poetic way how the money people spend can go on to help many others. Gary Soto is from California and admires people who have done great service for others. The title of the poem is significant because it gives the reader a very good sense as to what the poem is about. "How Things Work" is all about how the money you spend can continue on to help benefit other people in the world. The poem was written in a rather simple type of fashion. The poem express poetic devices such as similes and metaphors. For example, "The tip I left For the waitress filters down Like rain". Also, "wetting the new roots of a child" is an example of a metaphor. The tone of this
First, I will illustrate how structure is being used in the poem and ties into the speculation. Structure of a poem is very important. The structure of a poem focuses on having a beginning, middle, and end to give a poem a clear meaning. The speaker starts the poem with “You can always start with the was of things,” trying to illustrate when writing a poem it is good to begin with jotting down the things
In poetry, three things are used to help the reader understand the poem better. These things are syntax, imagery, and connotation.
“This is my only request, that you make four whirligigs, of a girl that looks like Lea. Put her name on them. Let people over all the countries receive joy from her even though she's gone.” For example Anthony who has a mum that controls his life and only wants to play baseball but gets forced to study and practice the piano everyday. Anthony then lies and does not practice. The solution to his problem was that he talked to a teacher about the whirligig he saw and told his mum that rest is needed. The whirligig shows that people work like a whirligig. If you keeping working without any rest you will break. It shows me that if we work at our own pace and set our own goals this will result in bringing a better quality in life. Even though Brent didn't know how much of an impact he left with the whirligigs, it had a big impact on others lives like Anthony as it is used to help overcome their challenge. This shows that the author is trying to teach us that our actions can leave a big impact on other people's lives which can either benefit them positively or negatively on us and others which depends on your decisions. Another example of Brent's action that impacted people's lives is a mexican man who is desperate for peace and quiet and wants to live alone. The marching band whirligig shows that family are always gonna be loud and have to deal with it, its normal. This shows
The poem “anyone lived in a pretty how town” by E.E. Cummings talks about the cycle of life and the importance of structure, symbolism, and language of the poem. For instance, the poem has nine stanzas, which has a rhyming pattern of AABC. The rhythm of the poem is significant for it supports one of themes, the cycle of life. Cumming uses season to explain the poem's progress. “spring summer autumn winter” (3) and “sun moon stars rain” (8) symbolizes time passing, which represents life passing. In the poem, as the seasons and skies rotate, life continues along with them. In addition, the uses of the words “snow” (22), “buried” (27), “was by was” (28), and “day by day” (29) leading to death. Towards the end of the poem, the depression of death was mention, but Cumming was just stating the n...
Figurative Language in used throughout poems so the reader can develop a further understanding of the text. In “The Journey” the author uses rhythm and metaphors throughout the poem. “...as you left their voices behind, the stars began to burn through the sheets of the clouds..”(25-27). The author compares the star burning to finding your voice. Rhythm also develops the theme of the poem because throughout the story rhythm is presented as happy showing growing up and changing for the better is necessary and cheerful. In “The Laughing Heart” the author uses imagery and metaphors to develop the theme throughout the book. “There is a light somewhere. It may not be much light but it beats the darkness”(5-7). Always find the good out of everything, even it
The tone in, How Things Work, is routine, it is just another day of spending money in order to survive. Soto used rhetorical strategies in How Things Work. There is a small amount of alliteration “Five for a softball. Four for a book”(How Things Work -Gary Soto), some similes, “The tip I left For the waitress
Throughout this entire poem, there were many literary devices found, such as; figurative languages/rhetorical devices, reflective tone, and sound/structural devices. In the poem, the poet, Marge Piercy, makes the readers realize that hard work not merely obligation, but rather should offer a fulfilling reward for those who perform it to create something that will be of use. The title of the poem, “To Be of Use,” makes readers think that this poem is about hard work being a negative impact. In this case, it conveys an opposing connotation about the idea of work instead.
... the fruits of a person's hard labor will linger to give honor to their memory after their death. However, Piercy adds that "they were made to be used" to indicate that this won't be the case if a person's labor is not the fruitful productive type. Piercy concludes by stating that "The pitcher cries for water to carry and a person for work that is real" (25-26). With this figurative language Piercy develops the theme by affirming that people need to be willing to work hard in order to reach the satisfaction of accomplishing something that is meaningful in their lives.
Not only the words, but the figures of speech and other such elements are important to analyzing the poem. Alliteration is seen throughout the entire poem, as in lines one through four, and seven through eight. The alliteration in one through four (whisky, waltzing, was) flows nicely, contrasting to the negativity of the first stanza, while seven through eight (countenance, could) sound unpleasing to the ear, emphasizing the mother’s disapproval. The imagery of the father beating time on the child’s head with his palm sounds harmful, as well as the image of the father’s bruised hands holding the child’s wrists. It portrays the dad as having an ultimate power over the child, instead of holding his hands, he grabs his wrists.
The diction in the writing is one of the roles to the creation of this poem. For instance, looking at the title, it prepares you for the poem. How does it do this? It engages your mind to generate questions that you might want answers to. Such as, “How does a valley just
The rhyme of the second and fourth line allows the poem to linger in the thoughts of the reader creating a continuous reminder of the message being conveyed. These lines express the important message of making the most out of your time. The entire poem uses a metaphor which displays poetry as something that is fixed and that once it is written, it cannot be changed. The last two lines of this stanza relates the readers’ life to a poem with the use of the word sentence to refer to aspects of young Australians’ lives. This metaphor allows teenage readers to get the sense that it is important to make the most out of your life and not to stress about the small
He uses personifications specifically in this poem to write about what is going on and to describe things. “It's a hard life where the sun looks”(19)...”And its black strip of highway, big eyed/with rabbits that won’t get across ”(2)...”A pot bangs and water runs in the kitchen” (13) None of these are really human body parts on things such as the sun, a pot, or a highway, but they help describe what something does or what something looks like. In the first instance, the sun cannot actually look at something, but it could mean that the sun is visible to the humans, and if humans are out for a long time in the sun, they can get hot and exhausted. For the second line, the big-eyed highway could mean that the highway has many cars with bright headlights that are dangerous for the rabbits, the immigrants, to get across. For the third and final line, pots are not able to bang things on their own, and it could have possibly been a human who made the pot bang, preparing the meal of beans and brown soup that they survive on. There is also a simile in this poem, “Papa's field that wavered like a mirage” (24). This simile could suggest that the wind is moving the grass or crops on his father’s field and looked like an optical illusion. According to Gale Virtual Reference Library, the literary device, “tone” is used to convey the significant change of the author’s feeling in the poem. In the beginning lines, the tone is happy. The poem talks about nostalgia of when he was little, “They leap barefoot to the store. Sweetness on their tongues, red stain of laughter (5-6). (GVRL) These lines illustrate the nostalgia and happy times of Gary Soto’s life when he was probably a child. However, after line 11, the tone becomes more of a negative one. Soto later talks about Farm Laborers and how the job was not a great one. After line 19, a brighter
The poem “Behind Grandma’s House” by Gary Soto is a poem about rebellion, through the eyes of a boy who desperately needs attention, who has a lack of respect, and who ironically receives a lesson from his grandmother as a consequence from his behaviors. During the reading of this poem, the reader can feel somewhat caught off guard by its abrupt and disturbing ending. However, after analyzing the author’s own idea of who he was as a child, and the behaviors that may have been expected from him, it gives the reader a better understanding behind the inspiration the author used for his work, more specifically “Behind Grandma’s House.” Many articles have been wrote about Gary Soto’s life and work. However, there is an article titled “About Gary Soto: A profile” by Don Lee, which gives the reader a better understanding of Soto’s background. It also helps in understanding the character that is being represented in the poem.
The story 'Everyday Use', written by Alice Walker, is a story of heritage, pride, and learning what kind of person you really are. In the exposition, the story opens with background information about Dee and Maggie's life, which is being told by Mama. The reader learns that Dee was the type of child that had received everything that she wanted, while Maggie was the complete opposite. The crisis, which occurs later in the story, happens when Dee all of a sudden comes home a different person than she was when she left. During the Climax, Mama realizes that she has often neglected her other child, Maggie, by always giving Dee what she wants. Therefore, in the resolution, Mama defends Maggie by telling Dee that she cannot have the household items that she wants just to show others, instead of putting them to use like Maggie.
The poem, “What Work Is” by Philip Levine is an intricate and thought-provoking selection. Levine uses a slightly confusing method of describing what work actually is. He gives the idea that work is very tedious, however necessary. It is miserable, however, it is a sacrifice that is essentially made by many, if not all able-bodied members of society. Many have to sacrifice going to a concert or a movie, but instead works jobs with hardly a manageable salary. This poem seems to have a focus on members of the lower-class or middle-class who live paycheck to paycheck and are unable to put money away for a future for their children or for a vacation and how difficult life can be made to be while living under this type of circumstance. Levine