In “Poem to My Litter,” Ritvo wrote about how doctors split his tumors and scattered them in the bones of twelve mice (3-4). Here he managed to convey very surreal and strange images through plain language. It’s the work of a very accomplished writer with an unusually vivid imagination and a surprising sense of humor. This is someone who have accepted his fate and diagnosis, and his writing addresses his terminal illness head on, without pity or melodrama.
He travels in several region and he listen to the accents, pronunciation they use it disappearing little by little. He says, “one of my purpose was to listen, to hear speech, accent, speech rhythms, overtones and emphasis. For the speech is so much more than word and sentences. I listen everywhere. it seemed to me that regional speech is in the process of disappearing, not gone but going (154).
Walter Dean Myers won the Coretta Scott King award for African American author five times. Myers was originally named Walter Milton Myers but he adopted the middle name “Dean” to honor Florence and Herbert the parents that raised him after his mother passed away when he was 18 months and his father sent him to live with Florence and Herbert Dean. Walter Dean Myers was born in August 12, 1937 in Martinsburg, West Virginia and died July 1, 2014 in Manhattan, New York city, New York. When he was a child his life involved his neighborhood and church, the neighborhood protected him and the church him, and also had a speech impediment that made communicating very difficult for him.
In the poem “Green Chili” by Jimmy Santiago Baca the author shows us how this poem relates to culture, identity, and family. To begin with, from the narrator's perspective in this poem mastering languages has helped him thrive by knowing the two languages English and Spanish. Also, being able to master language has a big impact for his identity as a bilingual person and his culture for the Hispanic traditional food for example in the poem it states “green chili con carne between soft warm leaves of corn tortilla”. For mastering the languages is prior to family being with his grandmother cooks chilli is his way of connecting the world with his culture as a New Mexican. In conclusion, the concept of mastering language connects him to culture
The look of “fear” in strangers’ eyes when asking his father a question on the street to only receive his father’s “harsh voice” announcing his Deafness is ridiculous. The fact that in his personal experience, he witnessed people run away as if his father’s Deafness was a disease is mind-blowing. It is upsetting that Deaf people are forced to rely on their hearing children to aid them in the hearing world where hearing people don’t have the patience for Deaf people. The difficulty translating for his father in situations like those at the butcher shop where the butcher refused to take their order and called Myron’s father a dummy and Myron having to translate that to his father has to be so trying as a child.
Confidence is key Confidence is the key to success. The poem,”17” by Rudy Francisco, demonstrates this with a speaker talking to his former self about a time when he had a crush on Rachelle Moss. Initially, he doesn’t have enough confidence to do anything about it. Rudy describes himself in negative ways but then begins to see himself as important and not an accident. Rudy gives himself the confidence to ask out his crush and she says yes.
“So many words were still unknown that when the butcher and the lady at the drugstore said something to me, exotic polysyllabic sounds would bloom in the midst of their sentences. Often, the speech of people in public seemed to be very loud, booming with confidence. The man behind the counter would literally ask, ‘What can I do for you?’ But by being firm and so clear, the sound of his voice said that he was a gringo; he belonged in the public society”(12). Rodriguez describes the way English sounds to him creating an image that the language was very complex to in his perspective.
Elizabeth Wyckoff concisely translates the text to give an understandable and straightforward interpretation of the literature. She utilizes complex sentences and well-put run-ons to develop multiple ideas through her paragraphs, which are reinforced, clarified, and tied together with simple sentences. She builds into these ideas as the section develops: “Language, and thought like the wind and the feelings that make the town, he has taught himself, and shelter against the cold, refuge from rain. He can always help himself.” Using a run-on sentence she pushes her ideas with examples that are compelling and related to the idea of helping yourself in order to convey her message.
“Nikki-Rosa” Poem Analysis In the poem “Nikki- Rosa,” Nikki Giovanni writes with diction and imagery to prove that’s she had a happy childhood in spite of her family’s hardships. Giovanni creates a poem, that although short in words, provides a lasting effect on the reader. Giovanni’s creative use of language and descriptive words, the distinction of black culture from white culture, and memories of average times that made her childhood unique and happy made this poem distinct and exceptional. Giovanni frequently references to her happy childhood in her poem using words and phrases that create an image in your mind showing you that her childhood was in fact a happy one.
Many will never be able to grasp the full capacity of the power of language. Although, some of us can experience the depths of its ability through personal experience of upbringings and struggles. Jimmy Santiago Baca in “Coming into Language” talks about his own obstacles he had to overcome and how language became a way of life through the dark times of hopelessness. Whereas, Christine Marin in “Spanish Lessons” used language to find and learn about her identity to later become a voice for it and also make a difference in the community. These stories and our own backgrounds with language allow us to understand its capabilities of how it can transcend the mere means of just communication into a world of discovery and exploration.
Drifters by Bruce Dawe “Why have hope?”, is the question raised in the poem “Drifters” by Bruce Dawe. Bruce Dawe’s poem explores how change can damage a family 's relationship and cause them to drift apart. This poem has underlying and straight forward themes depicted about change. Straight forward depiction is the physical movement of the family from place to place and not everyone is in favour of this change. The very first line of the poem, “One day soon he’ll tell her it’s time to start packing”, supports the inevitable change that no one else has a say in except the man.
Can one imagine your kids not being able to speak our native tongue? These people are willing to speak to the in a foreign langue and only whisper their native language in order to be accepted by the people in their new adopted homeland. Immigrants are willing to give up their culture, give them foreign toys, teach them different sports, learn new languages, change their names and these are just a few of the sacrifices these people make to be here. This whole poem is filled with sacrifices that a parent has to make to their native culture in order to fit in and even with everything
When one hears the word aphorism, they might not automatically recognize it. However, aphorisms are extremely common, and the average person could probably rattle off a few. Among the common aphorisms is “You made your bed now lie in it.” I believe this aphorism should be considered by most people in today's society, which has become consistently egocentric.
The poem A Step Away From Them by Frank O’Hara has five stanzas written in a free verse format with no distinguishable rhyme scheme or meter. The poem uses the following asymmetrical line structure “14-10-9-13-3” while using poetic devices such as enjambment, imagery, and allusion to create each stanza. A Step Away From Them occurs in one place, New York City. We know this because of the lines, “On/ to Times Square, / where the sign/blows smoke over my head” (13-14) and “the Manhattan Storage Warehouse.”
This poem is about a Mexican-American speaker informing the reader about the struggles in which people from different ethnic backgrounds
