Why I Went to College- Claire Barbour

"you better learn

to eat soup

through a straw"

- Why I Went to College, written by Martin Espada, has a humorous a rhythmical tone. Due to the rhymes Espada uses throughout the poem, the reader is pleasantly surprised by the humorous lines that the rhymes create. I believe that the bluntness of the rhymes is why they are humorous, as well as the obviously humorous diction used to create the rhymes.

- In order to replicate the humor in this poem, I would first find the words that would used as the base of the humor and create more or less humor depending on how blunt or in-depth I decided to make the lines . Blunt being more humorous than in-depth.

Hope: Claire Barbour

"After the car left,
The car with no license plate,
we couldn't

find out"

- This Poem by Ariel Dorfman, is strategically plotted out in order to emphasize ironic aspects of the poem and also to emphasize different major parts of the story line. For example "hope" is used towards the the end of the poem, It is laid out so that there is emphasise on this word, and what the reader is drawn to is the irony of hope in the poem because the hope the the narrator is hoping for is negative hope instead of positive.

-In order to recreate the strategy used in this poem I would formulate the layout of the poem, so that emphasise was drawn to certain aspects while still coming together to form a story the lines of the poem would be placed so that the poem expresses important aspects without making the reader search for them.

To see a World in a Grain of Sand: Claire Barbour

"And heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity..."

- To see a World in a Grain of Sand by William Blake uses sophisticated rhyming to avoid a childish tone. Because of this you can instead focus not on the quality of the rhyming but instead the importance and meaning behind the poem. Blake uses this poem to describe the beauty of nature and how easily it can be overlooked.

- In order to create this sophisticated tone, I can use enjament, a term the we a discussed in class and also one that I noticed in this poem. After reading this poem I realized the affect of enjament on a the text. I tried to go through and ignore the punctuation to see the difference between the two, and I noticed how the tone of the poem completely change from childish to sophisticated.

The Eagle- Claire Barbour

"He watches from his mountain walls, And like a thunderbolt he falls."
-Obviously this passage is describing an eagle catching food, although despite the facts of the poem there are many literary aspects that create an depth read, including the rhyme scheme and the abundance of figurative terms packed into the 6 lines of this poem. Tennyson escapes forming a childish tone despite the fact that he uses excess rhyming. I believe that the reason for this is because his rhymes are supporting descriptions that add to the in depth imagery of the poem.

-In order to portray Tennyson writing style I am going to attempt to make my rhymes more meaningful and more appropriate for the sentence. I want to focus more on the meaning of the word I'm am using to rhyme instead of just how it sounds in the sentence.

We Real Cool- Claire Barbour

"We real cool... We die soon"
- Brooks was probably trying to show a cause a effect relationship here. Because they are this "cool" they are involved with things that aren't productive to ones lifestyle. They stay out late, drink alcoholand and curse, all of theses things describe a typical rebellious teenager, but what is interesting about this poem is that he goes on in the last line to say We die soon, this could mean multiple things. This could mean that they put themselves in such a dangerous situation that is takes their life or that the y are burnt out from doing the wrong thing for so long that their soul begins to die.

-What I could do in order to recreate this style of writing is pick a relevant topic such a world pollution, and list of multiple ways that we are harming our earth and then end with the truth of where this tragedy is leading us. This is a very effective way to portray a cause and effect relationship in a poem.

Claire Barbour: Red Wheel Barrow

"So much depends upon a red wheel barrow..."

- This first stanza of the poem gives it a tone that allows it to be interpreted by the reader. What depends on it? and Why? This creates an broad area that one could fill in the blanks for themselves. Another aspect of the poem that stood out to be was the use of colors like red and white, his tactics all seem to create the feeling that he wants to leave the poem open for the reader to be able to fill the blanks in with his or her own thoughts and ideas. This poem paints a detailed picture but leaves the rest for the reader to finish.


- The tactic I learned from the Poem is that you can create a piece but not completely have all the questions answered. That it could be very beneficial to the reader if you simply allowed them to make up there own story. Although another thing I picked up from this poem is that the imagery they created was so strong yet the diction he used was quite simple. So in order to create strong imagery you can take simple words and be just as sucessful as if you were to use more complex words to build your picture.

Washing Rice Imagery

"The yellow rice glistens in rippled water, the ripe grains and the unripe look the same, they are both the color of silk the same color"

- This passage portrays great depths of imagery. She goes into detailed descriptions about the individual characteristics of the rice and her mother actions while washing the rice. This creates a more in depth view of her mothers actions showing that even small details can catch the readers attention and make a small moment come to life. "Yellow rice" and "silk" make one grain of rice a very detailed aspect of the reading, and make the situation seem like it is one that is stuck in the narrators mind due to the descriptive memories she has of her mothers actions.


- In order to create a replica of this technique I will go into small details concerning objects that are already somewhat overlooked or miniscule. By using this tecnique I will be able to draw the readers attention to something that may seem abstract to them at first and come together in the end, when they have grasped the concept of my technique. By using this technique Lam Thi My Da was able to take a very small idea and linger it out much longer than one would expect that he would be able to, so I will use this technique for not only actions but ojects and create an abstract idea in the readers mind.