An Analysis Of Edward Hirsch's Poem Fast Break

Football, like many sports, can be very unpredictable. You may think your receiver is wide open, but once you throw the ball they could be covered by an opponent and the ball could get intercepted. Just like many encounters you have in life, Sports can show themes of struggle and conflict. You many think some options or answers will work, but in the end, they may not. The poem "In the Pocket" by James Dickey, talks about a quarterback in the middle of a football game trying to find players to pass to. In the end all of his options were unavailable and he got sacked. This poem shows an emphasis on not only football but also friendship, war and, depression.

The poem “American Hero” by Essex Hemphill, is about a competitive match of basketball, however, towards the end the author describes a social denial from other neighborhoods that despise his team. To convey his feelings, the author’s tone in the beginning of the poem is thrilling as it stimulates the feeling of playing competitively in a game of basketball when reading until the game is over when the tone gets wretched as the thought of being denied by the opposing team’s school sinks in to the author’s mind. Furthermore, the tone and the use imagery are used to convey the sense of being in the game and knowing the environment in this tense basketball game. An example of this is on lines 5-9, it states “It’s a shimmering club light and I’m

“Ex-Basketball Player” is a poem by John Updike in which a former high school-athlete Flick Webb’s life has been described. Flick was a high-school basketball star but as he got older he couldn’t live his dream of becoming a basketball player, and instead became an attendant at a gas station, which was the furthest he could go with his career. This poem explains how life changes as one gets older and at times it doesn’t go exactly as we plan it, where Updike exemplifies many poetic devices of imagery, personification and metaphors.

In W.P. Kinsella’s novel, Shoeless Joe, Kinsella developed his story on the famous baseball player Shoeless Joe Jackson and the famous Black Sox Scandal. Kinsella used many literary devices throughout the story. The main literary device used is, imagery. In the novel, Kinsella uses imagery to enhance the reader's experience. There are three prominent imagery scenes in this novel. The protagonists (Ray Kinsella) wife describes a man with a baseball cap and an old fashioned hat, who really was Shoeless Joe. Another imagery scene was, Shoeless Joe approached Ray and asked if he could return to the field, Ray agreed and could see a new players appear from the 1919 Chicago White Sox roster. Lastly at Boston Red Sox game, Salinger (J.D Salinger,

The movie Hoop Dreams traced a poor young talented African American, named Arthur Agee from grade eight to college. Arthur hoped to play professional basketball in the future to help his family to escape poverty. Despite the fact that his family is poor, and the neighborhood he lived in, were disadvantaged to him to pursue his goal in many ways. Firstly, Arthur showed great determination to play professional basketball, and he would like to lead his family out of poverty. Secondly, his ability to adapt to difficult circumstances, played a significant role toward his success in basketball. For Author playing basketball, it is not only a fun activity for him; it also acted as a tool to help Author’s family to escape poverty.

In John Updike’s poem “Ex-Basketball Player” the poet uses literary devices to depict the existing way of life of a once-famous sportsperson. Flick Webb was in before times a gifted athlete on his high school basketball team, and he was commendable of much awe. However, Flick never acquired any other skills to prepare him for a future. Accordingly, he now is locked into an unskilled job and his former glories have pale to all but Flick himself. Updike has created a character that is at this point in time going nowhere and spends most of his time thinking about his former days of glory. Flick dwells more restricted by the past than the present because the past was much brighter for him. Flick’s emotional retreat into his earlier period is exposed

“Execution” by Edward Hirsch is about an adult recollecting his thoughts about his high school football career and especially how his coach inspired him because his authoritative role model was battling cancer. The speaker talks about the coach’s goal for “perfect execution” and the infinite strategies the coach would draw up in order to reach his goal. The speaker concludes with their team’s loss against “the downstate team” and how they were ironically defeated by “perfect execution.” A superficial reader might assume that the poem was about the disappointing results that came from his team working hard to reach a goal, but the author’s use of impersonal tone and irony in the fact that their team’s loss is caused by “perfect execution” shows how a strong force can be conquered even when putting your best foot forward when accepting a challenge.

How would you feel if someone could control what you were thinking? In “The Feed” written by M.T Anderson, everyone living in the community had a feed in their brain that was controlled by one large organization. Violet, the main character, suffers through a malfunction in her feed that changes the way she sees her society. Most people’s opinions can be changed when they have experienced the benefits and the disadvantages of something. Since Violet is aware of how life is with and without the feed, she becomes hesitant to believing that her community is being run efficiently. She realizes how her feed affects everything she does and how without it, she would be incapable. Based on her experiences, thoughts, and actions, I can infer that Violet

“On the Subway,” written by Sharon Olds, is written from the perspective of what is presumed to be an upper class white woman, who finds herself on a subway with a lower class black boy. In “On the Subway”, Olds focuses on the controversial issue of racial conflict, and the theme of White v. Black. She does so by use of contrast between whites and blacks, by using harsh enjambments, powerful imagery, and by using the tone to convey the purpose.

For different people, comparable situations do not always reproduce the same end results or leave the same impressions. Rather, the resulting conclusion is often highly variable. As is the case of two labors featured in the poems, My Father’s Lunch” and “The life of a Digger”. While Erica Funkhouser’s speaker, Henry, experiences injustice and lack of reward for his hard labor in “The Life of a Digger,” Margarita Engle’s speaker experiences prosperity and remuneration for their father’s hard work in “My Father’s Lunch.” Each author uses the setting of a laboring man’s lunch break to demonstrate the ramifications of a hard day’s work and the rewards or lack thereof for their efforts.

One of the most recognizable, charismatic and relatable poets of our time is Kevin Young. What makes Young the poet that he is? He has unique way of drawing comparisons with food and his emotions/feelings. In doing so, his poems create an image in which the reader will easily comprehend. In addition, Kevin Young uses a heavy dose of similes. These similes provoke images that are intended to describe the setting, mood, or tone. Lastly, Young has adopted a couplet or triplet style of writing. All these ways has given Kevin Young a unique modus operandi that’s highly relatable and enjoyable to read.

Due to the many amenities collegiate athletes already receive, such as special registration for classes, large scholarships, and thousands of dollars each in terms of travel and team expenses, student-athletes should not be paid. While many college sports supporters feel college athletes should be referred to in the same interest as big-time professional athletes due to their experience and the difficulty of performing well in their specific sport, a more in-depth perspective needs to be taken on the subject. Student-athletes attending college spend a great amount of time devoted to their individual sport, but even though they spend immense amounts of time working to get better on

“The Story of an Hour” is a short story written by Kate Chopin. It details a wife named Mrs. Louise Mallard, who struggles with a heart condition. After learning of her husband, Brentley Mallard’s death in a railroad accident, Mrs. Mallard deals with grief in many stages. Chopin incorporates many literary devices throughout “The Story of an Hour,” but imagery is the most evident. “A Short Guide to Imagery, Symbolism, and Figurative Language Imagery” describes imagery as “a writer or speaker’s use of words or figures of speech to create a vivid mental picture or physical sensation”(Clark). In the short story, “The Story of an Hour,” Kate Chopin uses nature imagery to portray the journey of emotions that Mrs. Mallard experiences

In the poem “HEY DOG” by Jacqueline Woodson the point of view goes back and forth between first and second person. The tone of this poem is fun and happiness. The setting happens to be on a basketball court with the reader and their friends. The major literary focus in this poem is repetition.

This poem chosen is a short and delightful one. "Lunch Hour in New York" by Louis Dienes is a poem that is not only simple but also very visual and realistic. It describes a normal lunch hour during any day in Central Park. In this poem, everything is beautifully described : it makes it easy to picture the scene in your mind as you are reading. This poem is trying to show that even in a busy city like New York, there are some little things each day that most people look forward to, for example taking a break from work and going to sit in Central Park while enjoying your lunch, and admiring the beautiful scenery.