Jack A. Hardin
English 1109 at 7:41, Tue
September 6, 2020
Journal Five
Probably one of the most popular poems in class and my favorite: The Lanyard. I tried my best at writing a poem, but in the end, it was an amateur’s attempt. Poems never really made sense to me. I never made a connection with them. Until I read this poem. It erased the line of what I thought poems should be. I thought that poems were supposed to be beautiful and meaningful, but Billy Collins implemented humor and irony in his poem, and it surprised me. It was smart, witty, and nevertheless funny. Finding a line in the poem that was my favorite was hard. When I asked my dad to go over the poem to try to find the theme, he was laughing around every corner. Out of the four poems; we both agreed that The Lanyard was our favorites.
Sometimes, a line would end in the middle of a sentence, this was something that I found very annoying with poems. Despite that, my favorite line from The Lanyard was, “No cookie nibbled by a French novelist.” I thought it was a fun line that was very much stereotypical, but it fits very well with the story. My favorite word in this poem was “Here.” He used that word back forth between his mother and himself in the poem, “‘Here breathing body and a beating heart, strong legs, bones and teeth and two clear eyes to read the world.’ she whispered. ‘And here,’ I said, ‘is the lanyard I made at camp.’” He used the word for a very serious piece of dialogue and used it again in the next piece, turning it on its head.
Out of all of the chapters that struck me the most in Mango Street was the very last chapter: Mango Says Goodbye Sometimes. I think that ending a story the way it began, or ending it where it started, is much more impactful than just ending a story without giving much thought into it. She started the story by talking about her home and her life as a writer in the introduction. In the last chapter, Cisneros ends the story about her determination for getting a house of her own, but how she will always a part of the house on Mango Street, “They will not know I have gone away to come back. For the ones I left behind. For the ones who cannot out.” (Cisneros 110). It was a great closure. I believe a story should end the way it began, and Cisneros delivered this perfectly!
Hi Jack, I agree with you about how the book ended. I think it ended fantastically and with an adequate amount of closure. The Lanyard was also my favorite poem that we read. Its interesting how you choose here as your favorite word used. Instead of choosing an interesting word you choose the word that was used in the most interesting way.
ReplyDeleteI will be the third to say that she ended the book very well. Everyone has basically picked the Lanyard as being the best poem, and I like how you asked your dad what poem he liked. I would have never thought of that.
ReplyDeleteHi Jack, I think the Lanyard was my favorite of the poems as well! I agree with you that poems are difficult to connect with for me as well. I like how your poem is written, it seems you put a lot of thought into it.
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