Close Reading and Analysis Practice

Close Reading and Analysis Practice

Both the poems Shawl and Learning to read have an overall theme about the importance in reading. They are both reading because they are looking to discover something inside of them and they use books as an escape. The poems seem to want to forget the world around them and move on. They use imagery and allusions to give us (the audience) a clearer position. The poems are written in a different style the first poem is calm and focuses more on imagery, but the second poem is more proactive, focuses more on allusions, and has a faster meter to it.

The first poem starts us off with the situation he is in. The position he is in is explained with great detail however the problem is that he doesn’t make it clear why he is on the bus which I believe was on purpose but the description gives the feeling that he is running away from something then the poem transitions to him seeing himself in a window with the background just going through his head. He then proceeds to show us that he was looking for an escape and he finds it in the book. The book he was reading gives him the opportunity for everything around him to disappear and his focus to be on the book. That feeling is a luxury for him. The second poem is focused more on how he had nothing else to do but to read and no matter how much hardship he suffered it motivated him to “understand” books. The author’s use of the word “understand” is very interesting because it shows he doesn’t just read the books he understands them making them even more special to him.

Both authors use stylistic elements to make the readers feel the way they are feeling. They give us a better understanding of the tone, feeling, and auxiliary meaning to the poem. In the “Shawl” Albert Goldbrath give us a number of images and similes at the start to explain what he means by darkness. In “Learning to Read” the author gives us many