Poetry Journal #2

February 9, 3007

Title: My Wicked Wicked Ways
Style: Literary Critic

S: A child reflecting on the effects of their parent’s rocky relationship
O: Adults making bad choices around children
A: Can be anyone, but specific audience can possibly be mothers who do not act quick enough when in a bad relationship
P: To tell mothers how lack of action can be more harmful to the child than what the mother thinks is devastating to themselves
S: Delaying
Tone: Childish, naive

Sandra Cisneros’ poem entitled “My Wicked Wicked Way” portrays the effects of a rocky marriage from the perspective of their child. Though not specified whether a boy or girl, the child begins by introducing their parents. He talks about the physical aspects of his father as young and stylish and the more emotional characteristics of their mother (“she is not crying”). Then, the child adds a woman into the picture who “does not come till later.” The child then proceeds to say how, after all of this has passed and has been pushed to the side, the mother has no idea that the child “will turn out bad.” In this time of day, divorce is common. But what many adults do not seem to understand is that the effects of their decisions can be more damaging on their children.
Though not necessarily specified, one can imply that “the woman” being mentioned is the woman with whom the father is having an affair. The affair is the only image we see of the father actually doing something. The other images, such as the comparison to Errol Flynn, were just concerning his physical features. Knowing this affair is taking place and actually hearing the child say how his mother will react, the audience is drawn to have more sympathy for the mother. However, the poem ends on a on a completely different note. After the mother ignores what happened in the past and moved on, the child says that the mother does not know that the child will turn out bad. So, by the mother doing nothing, the child was put in a more devastating position than the child would have been in had it found out about the father’s affair. The actions of the father were portrayed as harmful; but the lack of action taken by the mother was portrayed as life threatening. By putting emphasis on the mother, the audience is being give the same “how could you” situation, but by putting emphasis on the actions of the person normally seen as the victim. For this reason, I feel that the author was effective in conveying her message.





Title: …do not send me out among strangers
Style: Literary Critic

S: Anyone
O: Discovering the unique beauty in different women
A: men
P: To encourage men to rethink their reasons for not choosing to get involved with certain women
S: Desire
Tone: Proud and questioning

In Sonia Sanchez’s poem entitled “…do not send me out among strangers” she sends out a message to men saying they should respect the uniqueness of the women they commonly do not see as valuable. Sometimes, uniqueness is overlooked. So, if the descent men do not take the time to love them, someone may try to take advantage of that woman and convince them that it is love. Overall, Sanchez is encouraging men to look deeper before all the good women end up lost in bad relationships.
I feel that the author was able to get their point across with few words by referring to the physically attractive features of women. By the end of the poem, I was pretty much able to understand who the audience was and what the message to that audience was. But, I feel that there could have been a more creative way to convey the same message. Whether it meant making the poem longer or just having better choice of diction, I feel that the poem was written somewhat lazily.