Publication Date

In the poem, "Publication Date," Franz Wright takes the audience on a ride of emotions with her comical tone and euphemisms to describe the feeling a person has when publishing their writing. The poem states, "One of the few pleasures of writing is the thought of one’s book in the hands of a kind-hearted, intelligent person somewhere," which gives the reader an idea of what authors hope for when they publish their work. Instead of just saying that writers hope good people read their work, the author says "kind-hearted" and "intelligent" as euphemisms so that the audience will know what the author means. Wright is also quite comical in this poem when he jokes about the publication day being, "National I Hate Myself and Want to Die Day." Through his humor and literary techniques, Wright is able to convey the feeling of authors to ordinary people.