Cartoon Physics Poem

Exemplar 2

Mrs. Wasser

Honors English 9

10 February 2022

“Cartoon Physics, part 1” by Nick Flynn and “The Death of Santa Claus” by Charles Webb use poetic devices in order to expand on the theme that childhood innocence can be easily taken away and the effect is irreversible.

The use of enjambment in the text alludes to the innocence present in a childhood and the use of a single end stop at the final line ends both the enjambment and the innocence. Enjambment is used throughout the entirety of both poems in order to create a flow of words with no stop, which is similar to how children can see the world without faults. Flynn writes, “ships going down-earthbound, tangible / disasters, arenas / where they can be heroes. You can run” (Flynn

The use of cacophony in both poems creates a harsh diction that reflects the harshness of a child losing their innocence. The intense cacophony enhances the destructive environment that Flynn creates, which relates to a child’s innocence being destroyed and irreversible. The environment of the poem is described as: “will crash into the rock. Ten-year-olds / should stick with burning houses, car wrecks, / ships going down-earthbound, tangible” (Flynn 11-13). The chaotic description of the environment includes cacophonic words such as “crash”, “burning”, “down”, and “tangible”. The “c”, “b”, “d”, and “t” sounds create a sharp diction that provides attention to the chaos that the author provides. In making a cartoon setting harsh, the roughness expands to the entire cartoon, which often represents childhood. Describing the children as “Ten-year-olds” puts emphasis on how young they are and how they shouldn’t be exposed to the harsh environment around them. Events such as “burning houses” and “car wrecks”, often have irreversible damage, which can relate to the irreversible damage of losing innocence. Cacophony ruining childhood innocence is present in both poems as Flynn uses the literary device to represent destruction of childhood innocence while Webb uses it to enhance the idea of death. The harsh diction of the description of Santa establishes his condition in a sharp way that can only get worse: “He’s had the chest pains for weeks, / but doctors don’t make house / calls to the North Pole,” (Webb 1-3). The common use of cacophony throughout three lines of text causes the harsh diction to be overwhelming. The lengthy use of this literary device is similar to the amount of time that Santa’s been in pain. Describing Santa’s condition with words such as “chest” and “pains” brands his health sharply The “ch”