Oranges by Gary Soto

The poem “Oranges” by Gary Soto was very cute. I read it in the literal sense as a story of a young boy that enjoyed his company with a girl that he liked by taking her to the corner store to buy a candy bar. The poem is written in very short lines that make it easy to read for the reader. There is not really any rhyme pattern and the poem is written in only two stanzas. The young boy is trying to impress this girl by bringing her an orange but she would rather have a chocolate bar that costs more than he can afford. Luckily, the saleswoman understood what the boy was doing and accepted his payment of a nickel and an orange. The boy then felt very accomplished by this and felt confident enough to take his “girl’s hand” the rest of the walk with her until they both enjoyed their snacks (47).

We Real Cool by Gwendolyn Brooks

The poem “We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks was a very short and easy poem to read. I took the literal explanation of the poem because to me, it is a very literal poem. This poem is basically describing how “cool” people act. Each line in this poem is a fragmented sentence that begins with the word “we” (1-7). The reader can then draw the conclusion that the people that think they are cool, they are also not very educated (We / Left school” (1-2)). An interesting aspect of the poem is that it is only written with single syllable words. I think this was done in order to keep a certain flow or pulse throughout the poem. Brooks also used alliteration throughout her poem such as “lurk late” (3), “strike straight” (4), “sing sin” (5), and “Jazz June” (7). The poem ends with the line “We / Die soon” which I think that the lifestyle of these “cool” people isn’t all the glory that people think it is.

Daddy by Sylvia Plath

The poem “Daddy” by Sylvia Plath is a very dark poem. I believe that this poem is about her dad and how he pretty much screwed her over in life. The poem ends with a very strong line of “Daddy, daddy, you bastard, I’m through.” (80). I believe that this line shows that she is done with any connection she had with her dad and never wants to know anything about him ever. The whole last stanza is actually quite disturbing because she talks about how “There’s a stake in [his] fat black heart / And the villagers never liked [him]” (76-77). This shows that her dad was a man that was not very liked by the people around him. The line “They are dancing and stamping on you” shows that her dad was not a very respectable man and that people for sure did not like him (78). In all, I thought this poem was very disturbing because I would never write anything about my father.