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What Is The Theme Of The Poem Hands By Sarah Kay

1666 Words7 Pages

Marissa Zanatta
Ms. Puddefoot
ENG1DN
Sunday, April 23 2023

Poetry Analysis Essay: Hands

Look at your hands, what do you see? Author Sarah Kay of the poem “hands” will help answer this question and change the hands are viewed forever. At the start of the poem Kay reveals a story from when she was young and aspired to be a hand model, but her dad shut her down and said “No way”. She was upset, but soon realized that her hands mean far more to her than just looking pretty. Each scar, each mark, all represent a story from throughout her life. Kay uses tone, similes and imagery to help develop her theme of “hands say what words can’t”. To start, throughout the poem the author's tone helps communicate the theme of “hands say what words can’t”. While describing …show more content…

The author uses descriptions such as: “Each scar marks a story worth telling, each calloused palm, Each cracked knuckle is a missed punch or years in a factory” (Kay 24-25). To help appeal to the readers visual sense, helping them visualize all the imperfections on the hands and the way all the marks connect and create someone's story. This quote of imagery helps develop the theme as it's talking about how all the different scars on people's hands help represent a person's past or different experience they have been through. Kay directly mentions how each calloused palm, or cracked knuckle can represent missed punches or years in a factory which are demonstrating different experiences from people's lives that have resurfaced on their hands. This makes the reader reflect on their own hands and the marks that are on them to get them concentrating about the stories that can be told just by the look of their hand. Indicating how somebody's hands are able to tell a person's story, and express what they’ve been through without physically saying a single

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