Poem Analysis Of 'Kindness' By Naomi Shihab Nye

The poem "Kindness" by Naomi Shihab Nye speaks about how you experience kindness and what it really is. The main point in this poem is that in order to experience people's kindness you need to experience hurt, sorrow, and loneliness. The author says that when you loose everything and have no one or thing that when kindness comes along it lifts you up "and then goes with you everywhere/ like a shadow or a friend" (33-34). When portraying this message the author uses a sad but hopeful tone to send the message she wants to say. This tone helps portray the message because you can feel how sad someone is when they are lonely and they have nothing. Then when the author changes the tone at the end of the poem in the last stanza to hopeful tone the reader can feel the hope and happiness that a person feels when they are down and they are given kindness.

While reading this poem you can see "...where the Indian in a white poncho lies dead by the side of the road" and you can see how sad that scene is. This image is a striking image because it grabs the readers attention as to how bad someone's life could be and what Linley someone could be filled with. Another striking image that grabs the readers attention and makes them thing is when the reader pictures "how you ride and ride/ thinking the bus will never stop,/ the passengers eating maize and chicken/ will stare out the window forever." This image strikes the reader because it makes them look into the passengers lonely hopeless faces. The imagery in this poem makes the reader think about their life and what sadness and sorrow is really like and how kindness can change someone's life all around. The literary elements in this poem add to the effect the poem has on the reader, which can be different for everyone, but it makes the reader reflect on their own life and how kindness has changed