Analysis of "Radio"

In, "Radio," Laurel Blossom uses repetition and an annoyed tone to explain the aggravation of having a person break into your car when there's nothing of value in it. In a strange pattern of stanzas, Blossom repeats "no radio" over and over again. This repetition can seem somewhat annoying to the reader which allows them to empathize with the speaker. The way the poem is structured is somewhat choppy which might be a suggestion to what the car looks like after it was broken into. Blossom says, "In car, nothing of value," which gives the impression that the break-in was unnecessary because the car had nothing that a thief would want and really it's just an inconvenience for the owner of the car. The tone and repetition Blossom uses help create an image to the reader.

The Farewell

In, "The Farewell," Edward Field uses a serious and sad tone. She uses metaphors and onomatopoeia to show the reader what can happen to a person who is too trusting in other people. The poem starts by saying, "They say the ice will hold so there I go, forced to believe them by my act of trusting people," which uses the ice as a metaphor for something bad that the speaker encountered due to trusting people too much when they say it's okay. The poem continues with the speaker falling into the cold water after the ice cracks under his feet and he dies. In the last sentence, "'Goodbye my darlings, goodbye dear one," as the ice meets again over my head with a click," Field uses onomatopoeia to allow the reader to hear the "click" of the ice. Edward Field uses the metaphor of breaking ice to convey the message that a person shouldn't be too trusting in other people because they could end up getting hurt.

The Poet

In, "The Poet," Tom Wayman uses a indifferent tone and icons to explain the mind of a poet. Each stanza is about certain things a poet can or cannot understand. The icon in this poem is the poet himself and each line is a complex statement about the poem. For instance, when the author says, "Cannot give clear verbal instructions, Does not understand what he reads, Does not understand what he hears." He's explaining the inner-mind of the poet. Wayman is trying to show the reader how different the mind of a poet can be and might possibly be trying to show the audience inside of his own mind because he himself is a poet. 

Analysis on "Did I Miss Anything?"

In "Did I miss anything?", Tom Wayman uses a sarcastic tone and allegory to show how a teacher feels when a student asks if they missed anything when they weren't in class. The poem has a double meaning by saying that the student missed both nothing and everything. In the first stanza the speaker is being sarcastic by saying, "Nothing. When we realized you weren’t here we sat with our hands folded on our desks in silence, for the full two hours," which shows how annoyed the teacher is with the question. The next stanza, where it shows the allegory, is somewhat serious and is probably what the student actually did miss in school, " Everything. I gave an exam worth 40 percent of the grade for this term and assigned some reading due today on which I’m about to hand out a quiz worth 50 percent." The tone and allegory of the poem show the true meaning and feelings of the teacher. It shows that every experience in life matters whether it be in a classroom, or somewhere else. The speaker says that the student did not miss anything sarcastically because any moment that a person could experience but doesn't is a moment missed, sure the student could get the notes from a friend but they wouldn't have the experience of learning it first hand in the classroom and that's an experience they'll never be able to get back now. 

At the Un-National Monument Along the Canadian Boarder

In the poem, "At the Un-National Monument Along the Canadian Boarder," William E. Stafford uses a serious tone and imagery to show how unimportant a perfectly good place is because nothing important happened there. Stafford says, "This is the field where the battle did not happen, where the unknown soldier did not die," to show that the insignificance of a place where nothing bad happened. It's almost as if America glorifies past despair and even though this little area of land is perfectly nice, nobody appreciates it because there's nothing that happened there worth remembering. When the author says, "Birds fly here without any sound, unfolding their wings across the open," he's trying to convey to the reader that the land is serene and beautiful even though nobody seems to care. Stafford's serious tone and imagery show the reader what society is missing because they're too focused on on places when battles took place and people died.

Numbers

In the poem, "Numbers," Mary Cornish uses a playful tone and imagery to explain what she likes about numbers. The author is trying to convey to the reader that numbers are not like people, they won't judge you or care who or what they are used to count for. She says the line, "two pickles, one door to the room, eight dancers dressed as swans," to allow the reader to imagine what she is counting. In each stanza she goes through the basic concepts of math and gives images of examples of how to use them. For example, when she says, "add two cups of milk and stir," she is talking about addition and when she says, "of fish times fish, whose silver bodies breed beneath the shadow of a boat," she is giving an example of multiplication. What the other is trying to show in this poem is that numbers can be used for anything. You can count anything and anyone with the same numbers that every other person in the world uses. She uses imagery to show the meaning of numbers. Numbers are not just for the rich or the intelligent, they are for anything. 

Fight

In "Fight," Laurel Blossom uses a hostile tone and imagery to show the difference between the speaker and their partner and why they are not a good match. The speaker begins by listing things that make them different from each other. The author uses imagery to show the difference between them with quotes like, "And a red flannel shirt. That's not what I do. I put the top down as soon as we arrive." The first stanza compares the two people in the relationship saying, "You dig in the garden. I swim in the pool," and "I like to wear cotton. You like to wear wool." The speaker is trying to compare the way the two of them live their lives differently. When she says, "You want to get married. I want to be free," it is shown to the reader what the real problem between them is. Through imagery, Blossom gives the differences of the couple and shows how they're not good for each other.

The Summer I was Sixteen

In “The Summer I was Sixteen” Geraldine Connolly uses a thoughtful tone and imagery to reflect on her teenage years and explain what it was like to be young. The speaker uses imagery in the first stanza to show the reader her fun experience swimming in a pool. She says, “The turquoise pool rose up to meet us,” and “we plunged, screaming, into a mirage of bubbles,” to give the reader the ability to see into her memories and give the reader the sense of being there. The line, “We came to the counter where bees staggered into root beer cups and drowned. We gobbled,”  gives the reader the ability to imagine the food stand that they went to eat at. At the end of the poem she says, “tossing a glance through the chain link at an improbable world.” Which shows the way she felt about growing up and not being young like this anymore. Through powerful imagery Connolly shows the reader carelessness and freedom of a teenager.