Mexican Immigration in California Soto’s poetry is often autobiographical, as is the case with ‘‘Oranges.’’ Soto was twelve—the age of the boy in this poem—in 1964. He grew up in a Mexican American family in Fresno, California, a city that drew many Mexican immigrants who came to the United States looking for jobs in the…
Tag: Poetry
Oranges by Gary Soto – Literary Devices – Imagery
Narrative Verse and Free Verse ‘‘Oranges’’ is an example of a narrative poem, or one that tells a story. Narrative verse is traditionally considered to be one of the four basic literary modes of poetry, along with lyric, dramatic, and didactic poetry. Narrative poems include the oldest poems known to history: epics such as the…
Oranges by Gary Soto – Themes – Symbolism
Coming of Age ‘‘Oranges’’ is the story of a twelve-year-old boy who is crossing an emotional threshold and entering into a new period of his life, facing things that he has never encountered before. This is made clear in the first few words of the poem. The fact that he has never walked with a…
Oranges by Gary Soto – Summary
Stanza 1 ‘‘Oranges’’ begins with a narrator looking back at his childhood. He remembers a particular experience of walking side by side with a girl. All that readers know about the two characters in this poem is that he is twelve years old at the time of its events, and that she is presumably twelve…
A Nocturnal Reverie – Analysis
Modern readers of Anne Finch’s work take a particular interest in ‘‘A Nocturnal Reverie’’ with regard to its categorization. With the benefit of significant historical and literary hindsight, some scholars regard the poem as an example of the Augustan literature that was so popular in England at the time the poem was written (1713). But…
A Nocturnal Reverie – Summary
‘‘A Nocturnal Reverie’’ is a fifty-line poem describing an inviting nighttime scene and the speaker’s disappointment when dawn brings it to an end, forcing her back to the real world. It is written in iambic pentameter, a meter that consists of five feet (or units), each containing an unstressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable….
I, Too by Langston Hughes – Analysis
Poetry offers readers a multifaceted opportunity to experience the world in a different way. Poetry can create beauty. It can also be witty and entertaining, sometimes even comedic. But perhaps poetry’s most important functions are to educate readers about injustice and to rouse readers to actions that can change the world. On occasion, poetry illuminates…
I, Too by Langston Hughes – Historical Context
The ‘‘New Negro’’ and the Harlem Renaissance In March 1925, Howard University professor, Alain Locke coined the term ‘‘The New Negro’’ for a special issue of Survey Graphic that emphasized and celebrated the diversity of black life in the United States. Of particular interest to Locke were the many examples of black art, literature, and…
I, Too by Langston Hughes – Literary Devices – Metaphor
Free Verse Free verse is verse with no discernable structure, rhyme scheme, or meter. Free verse allows the poet to fit the poetic line to the content of the poem. The poet is not restricted by the need to shape the poem to a particular meter but can instead create a varied or irregular rhythm…
I, Too by Langston Hughes – Themes
American Identity Hughes’s poem ‘‘I, Too’’ explores the duality of identity that defined black life in the United States in the 1920s. Black Americans claimed citizenship in a country that denied black citizens the same rights that were provided to white citizens. The poet claims that he is an American and entitled to the same…