English Honors Testing 4/22/09

Saturday at the Canal by Gary Soto

I was hoping to be happy by seventeen.
School was a sharp check mark in the roll book,
An obnoxious tuba playing at noon because our team
Was going to win at night. The teachers were
Too close to dying to understand. The hallways
Stank of poor grades and unwashed hair. Thus,
A friend and I sat watching the water on Saturday,
Neither of us talking much, just warming ourselves
By hurling large rocks at the dusty ground
And feeling awful because San Francisco was a postcard
On a bedroom wall. We wanted to go there,
Hitchhike under the last migrating birds
And be with people who knew more than three chords
On a guitar. We didn't drink or smoke,
But our hair was shoulder length, wild when
The wind picked up and the shadows of
This loneliness gripped loose dirt. By bus or car,
By the sway of train over a long bridge,
We wanted to get out. The years froze
As we sat on the bank. Our eyes followed the water,
White-tipped but dark underneath, racing out of town.

That's the one Anon and I were given. Time for some Google:

The Restless Dreams of Youth

Regardless of class or place in society, all people dream of a better place; some dreams are unattainable. [p1] In Gary Soto’s poem “Saturday at the Canal[p2] ,” the speaker and his friend sit by the edge of a canal, dreaming of a better place. High school holds no meaning for the speaker and his friend. They desire to be away from the set expectations of their hometown and dream of all things new. [p3] These boys, this voice of discontent, express a deeply honest theme. Essentially, some dreams cannot be fulfilled during the teen years. Soto creates this thematic landscape through the use of metaphor and vivid imagery. [p4] Through the use of metaphor, Soto brings the poem to a symbolic level, going beyond the literal image of two friends and their desire to leave town. [p5] In the initial reflection of the speaker, high school is decribed as “a sharp check mark in the roll book…”(Line 2). Here, the image of a sharp check mark captures the sameness of the speakers experience at school. Kids are not individuals, they are merely marks in a teachers book, meaningless in the long run.[p6] Additionally, the boys’ dream of escape. Soto writes, “San Francisco was just a postcard / on a bedroom wall” (Lines 10-11). San Fransisco is set up at the place, the dream, the boys want to attain, a place where “people …knew more than three chords / on a guitar” (Lines 13-14). The postcard metaphor turns a city into a bit of paper and ink rather than an actual possibility for the speaker and his friend. [p7] These metaphors develop the depper message of the poem—the message related to unattainable dreams. Imagery, vivid words written to engage the senses, is present throughout the poem. The speaker and his friend are described as unsatisfied. They “hurl large rocks at the dusty ground” (Line ). The image of a pointless activity captures the pointless, frustration thoughts the boys are having. Another image is that of “loose dirt” (Line ). The loose dirt seems to suggest a poor foundation, a place where the inhabitants are looks to lose the weak foundation in order to find new ground. The desire is unavailable.In conclusion, the image of boys and their unfulfilled dreams is powerful Finally, Soto ends with a summative image or metaphor: “Our eyes followed the water, / White-tipped but dark underneath, racing out of town” (Lines ). Like the water the boys look the part of seventeen-year-old students, but their true selves remin dark below the façade of the teen image.


Discuss.

Yeh-ric and I basically came to the same analysis about the poem, which was what was above. Two boys who wanted to escape from their town, and go to a faraway place. (I also mentioned that the speaker wanted to do so before he turned seventeen, but forgot to ask Eric about it)

Ihopethatthegraderhasthe"whateverinterpretationyoucomeupwithhasakerneloftruthinit"mentality.

Poem from the other Honors Test, contributed by Bill (InternetHateMachine):

Break
Dorianne Laux

We put the puzzle together piece
by piece, loving how one curved
notch fits so sweetly with another.
A yellow smudge becomes the brush of a broom, and two blue arms
fill in the last of the sky.
We patch together porch swings and autumn trees, matching gold to gold. We hold the eyes of deer in our palms, a pair of brown shoes. We do this as the child
circles her room, impatient
with her blossoming, tired
of the neat house, the made bed,
the good food. We let her brood
as we shuffle through the pieces,
setting each one into place with a satisfied tap, our backs turned for a few hours to a world that is crumbling, a sky that is falling, the pieces we are required to return to.

The stanzas and stuff got totally screwed up.


This is an analysis on Google.

"In the poem 'Break' by Dorianne Laux, the image of putting a puzzle together is used to compare the way of life of the family. The shape of the poem looks like a piece in a puzzle, by the combination of long and short sentences. The title 'Break' is significant as we can see that the time spent doing the puzzle is relaxing, and enjoyable. The pun of the word 'break' is also important as its gives the idea that the family is broken and in pieces just like the puzzle. The descriptions of the puzzle are drawn out which make the reader eager to know what the picture of the puzzle is. The diction in the poem is simple which is important as the poem is about problems with the child, which is the key of the poem, and so through using almost child like diction it brings attention to this. The first half of the poem seems blissful however the tone changes in the second half to be more haunting and negative.

The poem starts with 'We', which confers a feeling of togetherness and illustrates how they work together and gives a feeling of closeness. The enjambment in the first line, of 'piece by piece' however provides a visual picture of the pieces in the puzzle being separate and all over the place. The emphasis of the pieces fitting 'so' sweetly accentuates the idea of how perfectly the pieces fit together and the alliteration of 'so sweetly' adds a soothing, comfortable tone to the poem and gives the idea that they are content as they do the puzzle.

In the fourth line, the exaggerated contrast of the smudge and the broom which the almost miraculously transform from a 'smudge' into a 'broom' emphasizes how comforting it is to be able to correct things. The problems with the puzzle are exaggerated and give the idea that they are godly as they fix them. The idea that the sky has gaps and needs to be filled up connects to the previous idea of trying to solve problems. The personification of the sky having 'blue arms' ties the poem closely to their human problems with their daughter. They 'patch together porch swings' sounds as though they really are fixing the swings. The idea that they are able to patch 'autumn trees' in a literal scene seems so peculiar an so brings attention to the idea of how efficient they are.

The image of them holding the 'deer's eyes' in their palm is a striking image as it gives an almost gruesome picture of the deer's eyes in their hand.

The phrase 'a pair' is left at the end of the line, which brings attention to the expression and emphasizes the feeling of being close.

They match 'gold to gold' which gives an autumn feel and the repetition shows that there are lots of pieces. The 'brown shoes' also contribute to the autumn feel.

They do the puzzle as 'the child circles the room', this seems as though it's a reverse of roles and instead of the child doing the puzzle and the parents watching it's the other way around. Their child is described as 'the child' which immediately shows that they feel very distant to their daughter as they do not use a possessive pronoun such 'my'.

'Impatient' and 'tired' are put at the end of the line, which emphasizes that the child feels very miserable. The child's growth is described to be 'blossoming' like a flower, which contrasts with the child's unhappy feelings, to the beauty and delicacy of her innocence.

The 'neat house', 'made bed' and 'good food' gives signs that the parents are trying to have control of something as they cant with their child. The assonance in 'good food' emphasizes how faultless things are in the house, which contrasts the relationship the parents have with their child.

They let the child 'brood' while they 'shuffle through the pieces' which gives the idea that they despair about what to do and so take their minds of it by correcting something that they can do. The word shuffle signals to their uneasiness, and gives the picture that they are fiddling and nervous. 'Pieces' also gives impression of incompleteness and being broken.

They then put the pieces into place wit ha 'satisfied tap' which shows that it makes them happy to know that they can do something right.

The idea that whilst they do the puzzle the world around them is so different and is 'crumbling', 'falling' apart is parallel to the previous descriptions of the puzzle.

The word 'crumbling' shows that their life is not very solid and is very fragile.

'The pieces' in the second last line is an image to describe the problems that they are faced with and also gives the idea that they feel in pieces.

The alliteration of 'required to return' emphasizes how they feel trapped and have no choice and brings the poem to a dramatic end."

^tl;dr