Advice from the Experts Analysis

In "Advice from the Experts," Bill Knott uses a panicked tone, simile, and repetition to set the scene of a person about to jump off a building. The author describes the people urging the speak not to jump as, "a bunch of gawkers perched," above him. The simile of the people being gawkers shows that the people probably don't honestly care about whether the speaker will jump or not, they just want to stare openly at the drama. The speaker then says that they urge him, "don't, don't jump." The word "don't" being repeated could be an honest urge from the people that they don't want him to jump or they could have repeated it to add dramatic effect.

Domestic Work Analysis

In "Domestic Work," Natasha Trethewey uses an assertive tone and simile to describe the work of a woman who works as a cleaner in a house. The woman in the poem longs for a different job yet she still describes cleanliness as "next to godliness." Her apparent belief in god shows that even though she is upset at the job she has currently, she believes it's from god. She compares it to the work of god as in that she is doing what she is supposed to be doing and no matter how much she wishes she could do something else, ultimately, she is where she is supposed to be.

Tour Analysis

In "Tour," Carol Snow uses an indifferent tone and imagery to paint the picture of a person coming across a shrine in Japan. The image of a "swept path" and "camellia blossoms" allows the reader to think that the character in the poem is beautifying the shrine. In the next stanza, however, the speaker says, "Or — we had no way of knowing — he'd swept the path between fallen camellias," which suggests that the person didn't mean to make the shrine beautiful and that he actually didn't care because it was an accident. The poem suggests the idea that certain things in life are not important to some people as they are to others. Whoever made the shrine probably had a deep connection to it but a person walking near it might not have a similar connection.