The poem "To Be of Use" is about Marge Piercey's need to surround herself with .
people who work hard at everything they do. People who work together for a common .
goal, but cry out for work that's real. When I first read this piece, it made sense to me, but .
I could tell there was a hidden meaning. It seemed as if the stanzas didn't fit together as a .
whole. So I used close reading skills o get to the real meaning. Then the true meaning .
became clear to me.
In today's life, it's necessary for a person to surround themselves with a positive .
influence, even if it's not what we want to be doing , it still needs to be done well.
In this poem words are selected, and used to bring deep though to the readers .
mind. Lines like "Botched it smears the hands crumbles to dust." (line 19) show how .
words can paint a better picture, than a brush can at times. The word botched stands out .
from the other words due to it's sepperation from the rest of the line by the comma. This .
poem is a mixture of metaphors, and similes. These are used to create even more pictures .
in the readers head, and they do quite the job as mentioned earlier. Comparing people to .
seals, then seals to bouncing balls, giving the clearest smoothest picture in your head of .
what she means. When she talks of dust crumbling in yours hands you can almost feel .
the dust in your hands, and this helps to give even more clarity to the ,main idea of the .
poem. Things like rhyme have been disregarded, but for exceptional reason, like to .
provide a more serious feeling to show this poem, as something more than a joke or a .
trivial matter. Although rhyme is disregarded, rhythm is present throughout the entirety, .
and gives the poem quite a large amount of flow.
This poem seems to take the old and make it present and useful for today's society, using similes, and metaphors. Although the poem its self is quite clear, the genre .
is blurred and I couldn't exactly figure out where it would be placed.