This poem describes the pitcher in all of its lines. In the first four lines, Francis reveals the pitchers art, aim, passion, and technique. “His art is to be eccentric” (L1), which means that his art is to be odd or to act different. “His aim is to not hit the mark he seems to aim at,” (L2) meaning that he is aiming at the strike zone, but throwing where the batter will miss the ball. “His passion is to avoid the obvious,” (L3) in other words he loves to pitch so that the batter doesn’t know what he is throwing. “His technique how to vary the avoidance,” (L4) is saying that he has to pitch differe

a reader should take the time to not only to enjoy the poem, but to decipher its real meaning. Personally after reading this poem many times I was intrigued by how he used different elements of poetry to challenge me in understanding his poem, “The Pitcher.”

that, he is talking about the other players on the field. They throw simply to another player, not strategically throwing the ball to make a batter a moment off guard. In the next two lines of the poem, Francis uses connotation and alliteration. “Yet not too much, Not errant, arrant, wild, But every seeming aberration willed.” (L7-8) The use of errant and arrant is both connotation and alliteration. Connotation is the significance of a word in addition to its actual meaning. The significance of these words is that they sound the same but have different meanings, still pertaining to the description of the pitcher. Alliteration is the repetition of words with the same letters or sounds. The definition of errant is to wander, and the definition of arrant is to be notoriously bad. What Francis is trying to say in these lines is that the pitcher does not want to wander with his pitchers, be notoriously bad, or be wild, but to throw the batter out of sync by playing mental games. To end the poem Francis creates closure by making the last two lines rhyme. “Not to yet still, still to communicate Making the batter understand to late.” (L9-10)

nt pitches that will keep the batter from making contact with the ball. In lines five and six Francis writes, “The others

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