Martin Espada Bully Summary

A Closer Look on Martin Espada’s Bully
Right from its title, Martin Espada’s Bully expresses its negativity upfront. The title successfully frames the poem in a negative light. On further reading, however, the piece shows its truest form– that it is exploding with ironic and sarcastic rhetoric as much as it is teeming with nostalgic elements, both of which are deeply entrenched at the core of the poem.
This essay is anchored on the goal of looking closer and scrutinizing the said poem. It is divided into subheadings for the discussion of the analysis of each of the poem’s stanzas.
The first stanza opens with a depiction of a historical statue found at the school auditorium, which appeals as if the author begins to be “nostalgic for Spanish

It began by saying “Marines tramped from the newsreel of his imagination…” (23-24) to deliver the message of how the US totally lose its power over a country it formerly conquered. The lines that followed amplified this message by depiction of how the proud mustache has been downed by the paint of children. Under normal circumstances, it is a trouble maker who does the graffiti but in this case, it is done by the children who comprised the army that brought US

The last lines described a man with a Victorian moustache and a monocle. This man is no other than Roosevelt, who have his “Big Stick” ideology that made him become the most prominent figure during the Spanish-American War. The poem leads the readers to consider this in order to realize the weight the poem is trying to convey from the very beginning.
It is indeed vital to know what happened back then for the reader to really grasp the thesis of the poem. With the right amount of background information, the reader can see how the title becomes more fitting of the poem. Most Americans, especially those who are at the forefront of the battlefield, take pride in how the US conquered countries such as Puerto Rico and Guam. However, the poem presents Roosevelt, and to an extent the US, as a bully who eventually fell under another bully’s wrath. Ironically, it turns out that this another bully who will dominate them was the one they once bullied.
Overall, the poem is a successful attempt on using literary elements such as ironic and sarcastic rhetoric and powerful and suggestive imagery. From its title to its stanzas and specific lines, the poem is truly anchored on its central thesis and main themes. Its effective use of consistent tone and elements of the figurative language such as oxymoron and metaphor added value to its splendor as a piece of