Shane Koyczan's Poem 'Turn On A Light'

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What is your worst fear? Have you overcome it? In Shane Koyczan's poem, "Turn On a Light," as a child his grandfather fights the monsters that he fears. He then continues to yell for his grandfather night after night. Koyczan then sees that this effects his granddad and tries to overcome these fears. Since the author uses senses, structure, and diction he makes it clear that he believes family is something that will always be there for you. The author's use of the senses to enhance the imagery helps convey what he felt and the way his family members looked. Koyczan writes "My granddad used to wear a red polo shirt to bed. he said it used to be white." The author wants you to be apart of the story to get you to understand what was really going on. Another example, "He'd wake and thunder down the hall doing the very best he could...the kicks against the bedroom wall made thunder storm down the hall." Koyczan uses these words to show you how extreme the kicks were and how loud his grandfather was. …show more content…

For example, the poem is set up to be more like a story since it has no stanzas but it does still flow like a poem. "Turn On a Light" also uses a lot of repetition to represent importance. For example he uses the word "granddad" eight times. "... constantly how my granddad had..." His repetition of this word lets you know how relevant this man was at the time. He also negative words like screaming and kicking to show how much he loathed the monsters. An example, "... 'cause I was

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