The verse “WALK. DON’T WALK. TURN LEFT. NO PARKING…” showed the disarrays in the real world where life was described as fast paced. The colloquialism of the poem was displayed in words that were covered with “beeps.” This reflected the modern society and represented dialogues in TV programs. In stanza six, a change of mood appeared as the voice softened up nears the end of the last verse. This suggested the fatigue that the speaker felt from all of the consumerism around him. Tension continued to build as the poem progressed, and in the end death was the only way to escape the chaos and the anxiety.
Review of “Big Jim” –
The message explored in “Big Jim” was that the speaker had been considered to be “larger than life.” The name of the narrator indicated of a reminiscent of an informal story. This allowed the readers to feel the closeness and the warmth of the setting. The phrase “freckled paw” in the first stanza suggested that the speaker was a working class who worked in harsh environment. The next stanza had been purely dedicated to the description of the beers that the speaker drank. This implied the fact that Big Jim was manly and possibly uneducated. He had wasted away his life on large amounts of beers and getting drunk. The excess drinking also reflected back to the message of “larger than life” of the poem. The readers gained an insight into the actual personality of Big Jim when he quoted “Bee-yoo-tiful…” This led to a more personal voice. When the speaker was declaring that he was “every bloody bit as good as you are,” the characteristic of self-confidence showed through the speech. Big Jim might be less educated, but he certainly was careless of what others thought of him. The last stanza of the entire poem had a more relaxed and soft atmosphere to the words. Big Jim was reflected in the stanza as a much lovable character that was cared and respected by the community in large. The message was stated in the last stanzas starting with “yet through men like Big Jim shines that pride of life no language can define.”
Review of “Up the Wall” –
The poem “Up the Wall”, although brief, had contained important references and an overall concept of life. The structure of the literature was set to be 14 lines which meant that the poem was a sonnet. There could be seen the iambic pentameter, and the emotions expressed in the poem was similar to the sonnets written by William Shakespeare. The first stanza started with descriptions of incidents occurred in a housewife’s kitchen. A variety of noises was presented with words like “shriek.” The woman complained about the never-ending chaos in her house that repeated day after day. The phrase “like the horizon” found in verse six contradicted with the reality of the housewife’s life as no end could be seen from the current hectic circumstances.
The second stanza was noted to consist of anaphora in which the beginnings of the verses were identical. The housewife expressed in her phone conversation that her children and her husband “nearly drove her up the wall.” This represented a cliché. The entire stanza emphasized the noises in the poem as the woman complained about her life with emotional yelling. There was the irony of the woman being called by her children to do chores and the fact that no one was available for her to speak with. The last sentence of the last verse of the stanza quoted that the housewife felt lonely which was a plea from her.
The last stanza of the poem contained a drastic change in the atmosphere as the narration had been shifted to the husband. The husband expressed to his friend that the neighborhood was quiet. This mirrored the irony that the house was chaotic while the outside world was silent and unaware of the situation. The poem ended with “The matter ends.” The ending suggested that in the end no change was made, and life always goes on. The message of the literature was the desperation of the housewives in the modern society. The contents were also linked to the fact that our society is fast-paced and frantic.
Review of “Weapon Training” –
The name of the poem may be interpreted in different ways. “Weapon Training” can either be referring to the physical preparation in the army in order to fight in wars. It may also be seen as the emotional preparation for wars as soldiers must be coarse on the outside as well as in the inside. Therefore the sergeant employed harsh and abusive on the soldiers to harden the feelings. In a sense, the weapon of language can be just as malicious and deadly as the actual war weapons. The use of the pronoun “I” in the very first verse of the entire poem had defined the ultimate authority of the soldiers to be the sergeant himself. The rhetorical question in the fourth verse “are you a queer?” was a form of psychological attack on the personal feelings of the soldier. After hearing the direct insult, the anger of the insulted soldier was aroused as hatred began to form. The question in the fifth line “what are you laughing at?” showed the strict discipline in the camp as no emotion can be expressed from the soldiers. Although the poet never mentioned any laughter in the scene, the readers automatically presumed that someone had laughed because of the sergeant’s query.
