Tom Wayman, a Canadian author and professor, spent several of his years teaching English and writing classes (Wayman, “Bio", par. 2). Similar to any other teacher, Wayman invested his time and life in the next generation, giving students opportunities and figuring out the best ways to teach his material while also keeping everyone attentive. However, when an absent student shows up and asks whether or not they missed ‘anything’, the idea of shrinking his class into one word seems to reduce all of his teaching efforts into nothing. In order to convey his reactions and frustrations, he created the poem “Did I Miss Anything?” (Wayman, “Did I Miss Anything?” par. 3-4). While incorporating tone, juxtaposition, and repetition, Wayman effectively asserts the theme of how absence leads to a loss of opportunities in the classroom.
Throughout the majority of the poem, Wayman emphasizes a tone of sarcasm to demonstrate his annoyance as well as the important material that the student potentially missed, before shifting to a more serious tone. Initially, he portrays various exaggerated
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Not only does he believe that the question misrepresents the value of teaching, but it also seems to disregard the opportunities that can be taken from class. The sarcastic tone helps portray Wayman’s frustration and annoyance, and the juxtaposition emphasizes the differences between the two opposite types of answers to the question. The repetition of two words at the beginning of each stanza further accentuates the juxtaposition and the range of situations that could have happened when one was absent from class. In the end, “Did I Miss Anything?” serves as a reaction of the poet towards the common question asked by students, and it communicates the value and importance of one’s presence in the