Meyer December 4 PDF

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1st meyer textbook assignment for prof forestall ...

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Josh Turner LIT 205 Section 07 4 December 2018 “First Muse” and “Queens, 1963 by Julia Alvarez, “Bully” by Martin Espada, and “Mexicans Begin Jogging” by Gary Soto Summary The poem “Bully” written by Martin Espada it begins with telling us about a statue of Theodore Roosevelt in a schools auditorium. We are then told how the statue is in a Puerto Rican environment. The statue is defaced with graffiti in disrespect. “Queens, 1963” by Julia Alverez discusses the racial conflicts of the 1960s. It is told from the perspective of young girl who notices everything going on. She notices how blacks and whites don’t always get along. Along with this see sees how people react. For example, she tells us of a retired plumber who wants to move back with his wife where racial conflicts did not exist. She notices how important materialistic things can be in the world and how everyone wants the perfect “American home.” The next poem, “First Muse,” is also written by Julia Alverez. This poem is about the speaker who seconds guesses her work. She hears from a famous poet that “One can only write poems in the tongue in which one first said Mother” (2-3). She gets very upset and wants to destroy all of her previous work. She thinks of things that may cause her work to be “acceptable” even though it doesn’t follow this “rule.” In the end, she gives up writing to one day watch TV and sing to a Chiquita Banana song.

Lastly, “Mexicans Begin Jogging” by Gary Soto, begins with the speaker working with illegal immigrants in a factory. The border patrol shows up, and their boss tells them to run. The speaker says he is legal, but his boss pays him to run anyway. He runs and runs smiling the whole time finding it rather amusing. Response Each of the poems seem to teach their own lesson and have a message to tell, but if I were to teach one of them to freshman in my high school, it would be the poem “First Muse” by Julia Alverez. I would choose this poem because I believe that its message is the clearest out of the four poems. I also would teach this poem because I believe it is also the easiest to understand. When teaching them, I would not only make sure they understood what the poem was talking about but also the lesson behind it. I believe the message in “First Muse” is that we should not take so critically some of the things people tell us. I do not think that the listener should destroy her work just because someone told her that she was not writing her work, “…in the tongue\ in which one first said Mother” (2-3). We should be able to decide how we want to do things. I would tell the students that though it is important to listen to criticism when it is constructive, in the end, it is up to them. I think the speaker should write poems how she likes, not how someone else thinks she should. She should not be as crushed by her words as she is. Someone should not give up as the speaker did. For example, she writes, “I gave up writing, watched lot of TV…” (21). We should not through away our talents just because according to someone we are not ‘doing it the right way.’ Though it may be difficult to continue when someone we look up to tells us we are aren’t doing something ‘correctly’ in the end we should be able to create how we want to create....