Summary Of Hard Rain By Tony Hoagland

Analysis of Contemporary Poetry The poem Hard Rain, by Tony Hoagland was published in 2010. This is an example of contemporary poetry, meaning it was written within our lifetime. With this in mind, the whole poem centralizes on the concern of American contemporary culture. The author employs a declarative diction to assert his feelings toward American politics. As an illustration, he speaks to his audience like he’s having a conversation over a bottle of wine after everyone has left the restaurant. To clarify, he tells his readers flat out what he sees around him. Overall, Hoagland takes on the cultural challenges,and our political and national identities. The themes that resonate within the poem is American narcissism, righteousness,

The poem deals with these themes related to war. At the time when the poem was written, it was the deadliest year for U.S. troops fighting a war in Afghanistan. There was 496 casualties, and the U.S military personnel were killed at a rate of about one every 18 hours, (CNS). For this reason, the author creates a parallel between a teenage murderer and America sending troops off to war. First, Hoagland mentions, “You can’t keep beating yourself up, Billy,’ I heard the therapist say on television to the teenage murderer, ‘about all those people you killed - You just have to be the best person you can be, one day at a time,” because he wants to point out the ridiculousness of the idea that the power of forgiveness is stronger than the power of consequence. Then, he associates this concept with war. To further declare is point, he personifies America. For example, “Dear Abby: My father is a businessman who travels. Each time he returns from one of his trips, his shoes and trousers are covered with blood - but he never forgets to bring me a nice present. Should I say something? Signed, America,” (Hoagland lines 24-31). To further explain this, America’s father would be a soldier. Each time the soldier returns from his trips, he killed someone. The nice present, would be the dead body of a fellow soldier. He uses this personification to mock

Hoagland’s use of space and long lines pulls the reader into the rhythm so that the audience can see the world through his perception. He strives to bring the outside world into the reader’s small spaces and forces them to acknowledge that there is a big world out there that hinges on our everyday lives, whether they want to see it or not. In addition to this, the form the author chose for this poem is free verse. To explain, a free verse poem does not follow any rules. The creation is completely in the hands of the author. Rhyming, syllable count, punctuation, number of lines, number of stanzas, and line formation can be done however the author wants in order to convey the idea. Hoagland takes advantage of the fact that there is no right or wrong way to write this form of