Gary Soto

Introduction:

The reason why i chose Gary Soto is because i find that his poems are different from any other poems i read before. His poems are very lively and hilarious. Whenever i am feeling down, i would take out his poems to read and i would be cheerful again. About his work, the writer Joyce Carol Oates once said, "Gary Soto's poems are fast, funny, heartening, and achingly believable, like Polaroid love letters, or snatches of music heard out of a passing car; patches of beauty like patches of sunlight; the very pulse of a live."

Thesis:

In my opinion, i feel that he is indeed a very remarkable person. He writes poem very well and won numerous amount of awards. His honors include the Andrew Carnegie Medal, the United States Award of the International Poetry Forum, The Nation/"Discovery" Prize, and the Bess Hokin Prize and the Levinson Award from Poetry magazine. He has also received fellowships from the California Arts Council, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. In the papers, i will cover about all his greay achievements that he had gained.

Historical context:

Gary Soto was born in Fresno, California, in April, 1952, to working-class Mexican-American parents. At a young age, he worked in the fields of the San Joaquin Valley. He was not academically motivated as a child, but became interested in poetry during his high school years.

He attended Fresno City college and California State University at Fresno while working toward an undergraduate degree, and later studied poetry at the University of California, Irvine, where he earned his MFA in 1976. After that, he started writing poems and won many awards.

3 of his poems:

-The Elements of San Joaquin

-Where Sparrows Work Hard

-Neighborhood Odes


Sources:
www.google.com.sg
www.poets.org

If You Forget Me by Pablo Neruda

1) The figurative language in the poem is used in the form of hperbole, prsonification and smbolism.

Hyperbole- "ah, my love, ah my own"
The poet used figurative language in this form to evoke an emotion or image to the readers.

Personification- "if each day a flower climbs up to your lips to seek me"
The poet used figuarative language in this form to give an object, element or extract a human traits or qualities to make the poem more interesting and exciting.

Simile- "in me all that fire is repeated"
The poet used figurative language in this form to describe the love process going on between the man and woman

Symbolism- "aromas, light, metals, were little boats that sail towards those isles of yours that wait for me"
The poet used figurative language in this form to give a representative thing an additional meaing to express your feelings.

2)The reason why I like this poem is because it is very captivating and did a great job in describing the love between two people who break up and get together again. The was so interesting and exciting that i could not help myself from wanting to find out what happens next. Everything from the gist of the poem to the feel of the poem is a totally new experience and i certainly enjoyed it very much.

Lyrics (If You Forget Me)

I want you to know
one thing.

You know how this is:
if I look
at the crystal moon, at the red branch
of the slow autumn at my window,
if I touch
near the fire
the impalpable ash
or the wrinkled body of the log,
everything carries me to you,
as if everything that exists,
aromas, light, metals,
were little boats
that sail
toward those isles of yours that wait for me.

Well, now,
if little by little you stop loving me
I shall stop loving you little by little.

If suddenly
you forget me
do not look for me,
for I shall already have forgotten you.

If you think it long and mad,
the wind of banners
that passes through my life,
and you decide
to leave me at the shore
of the heart where I have roots,
remember
that on that day,
at that hour,
I shall lift my arms
and my roots will set off
to seek another land.

But
if each day,
each hour,
you feel that you are destined for me
with implacable sweetness,
if each day a flower
climbs up to your lips to seek me,
ah my love, ah my own,
in me all that fire is repeated,
in me nothing is extinguished or forgotten,
my love feeds on your love, beloved,
and as long as you live it will be in your arms
without leaving mine