Analyzing The Poem 'To This Day'

Clint Smith is a writer, teacher, and doctoral candidate in Education at Harvard University with a concentration in Culture, Institutions, and Society. Smith Clint wrote a poem called “Something You should Know.” The poem is about an early job he had in a Petsmart. The poet allows the readers into his personal life, but before he had trouble opening up to people and his work. Moreover, Clint wrote an insight in the poem about relying in anything to feel safe and he says it is the most terrifying thing any person can do.

While reading both stories, they both seemed to share the same theme. The theme that both stories shared is the dedication to do work even if it isn’t necessary. In, “Clearing Paths to the Past” The person states they have an obligation to clear their sidewalk so others can use the sidewalk to get somewhere. In, “To be of use” the person telling the poem explains how they love to be dedicated to doing work even when they do not need to do the work with any effort.

In the poem, “To This Day” by Shane Koyczan uses carefully chosen diction to support the message, that bullying is somewhat easy to overcome and put it behind you, because you should ignore the bully or avoid the bully. One example of the words that Shane chooses to support the theme is when he says “Suicidal”, because bullies would always bully this 10th grader who tried to commit suicide because of the bullies who bullied him. Another example of Shane’s diction that helps to support the message is “Graduating Members” because he focused on school and stayed away from the people who bullied him and tried to bring him down. Shane is also saying that everyone will try to bring you down, also Shane is saying that everyone will always try to bring

Lorna Dee Cervantes' poem, “Poema para los Californios Muertos” (“Poem for the Dead Californios”), is a commentary on what happened to the original inhabitants of California when California was still Mexico, and an address to the speaker's dead ancestors. Utilizing a unique dynamic, consistently alternating between Spanish and English, Cervantes accurately represents the fear, hatred, and humility experienced by the “Californios” through rhythm, arrangement, tone, and most importantly, through use of language.

Individuals have been brought to believe that the only way to end their griefs and sorrows is to end their lives. Though suicide has become a detriment and devastating issue, it has not been presumed to be an effortless or painless act. In society, people become their own threats as they tend to isolate themselves from others which often increases this devastating issue of unsubstantial pain and long-suffering. In the poem, Tuesday 9:00 am, by Denver Butson, individuals are unable to speak and move because of their own specific problems which are burdening them and their ability to help others. The poet is enforcing the idea that individuals need to open up their eyes and be aware of others relentless despair and their struggle to reach out.

In his collection Hum, Jamaal May associates his poetry through an anaphoric representation of urban style Detroit post- industrial landscape living, themes of fear and anxiety, the frailty’s of life and all this is delivered with an optimistic ingenious connectivity to his pieces as well as his musical lyricism that complements the emotional themes he tackles in a controlled state without never being too emotional nor emotional enough. His Poems “how to get your gun safely out of your mouth,” And even the Living Are Lost, and Aichmophobia, highlights May’s effort in having a collection that breathes and reads as one piece, his use of spacing and fluidity, as well as May’s effort to deliver standalone pieces that speaks to the overall collection

In the poem “To This Day” by Shane Koyczan the girl has a birthmark that covers most of her face, because of that she is called ugly and a wrong answer by the other kids at school. The author uses the erased letter B to symbolize how she is seen as a mistake in the eyes of others. Mistakes and wrong answers are seen as imperfect so she is being seen by the other kids as imperfect. The author also uses the talking bubbles to symbolize hateful, mean, cruel words that have created a lasting effect on her. Because of those words she won’t ever believe that she is beautiful, the words covered it up. Both of these pieces of evidence show how hate and cruelty can create a lasting effect on someone through words. Kids thought she looked like a “wrong

In the poem and video to “to this day” it explains how Shane Kocyczan had a rough childhood and that bullying hurts. Shane had a very rough childhood ,during his childhood he had an accident and then CYFD investigated him .Then he got taken away from his grandma and word got around school and the kids started to call him “porkchops”. In his video and poem he wants people to know how children get affected from the bullying and how it should make you feel..

Shane Koyczan has lived through experienced violence in schools, that is still affecting to him but he is now facing the problem, that’s why he wrote the slam poetry call “To This Day” a slam poetry, he emphasizes about what can bullying leave to the person, it leaves a mark, all of this physiological violence has more to do with beauty than with pain states Koyczan. In his poem he wants to give an announcement to all those guys that have been a victim of bullying. The important stories of the poem are about a guy that got a trauma with pork chops, because he confused with karate chops. The second story is about a girl that since she was 8 years old he have been through bullying because she had a birth mark, she is a mom with to kids.

‘To This Day’ is a poem about the emotions people face when they have been put down or told they aren't good enough and how ugly names affects us more than physical pain. The text focuses on three people whose lives have been affected by bullying from others. This was an attempt by Koyczan to end bullying throughout schools, workplaces and communities. The aims were to show that words hurt and they can become more hurtful as the years go on. The poem takes the audience on a journey of past and present to show that bullying haunts adults and children of all ages.

In the poem “To This Day” by Shane Koyczan, the point of the story is that people try to break down others and make them feel like they aren’t worth anything to make themselves feel better. The poem also uses pictures to represent what they are trying to say. For instance, in the quote, “but the school halls were a battleground, where we found ourselves outnumbered day after wretched day”, it has two symbols: the tank and the school hallway or battle field. (Koyczan 63-65) The tank represents that the bully is stronger than the victim and tries to destroy them. The school halls represents a battlefield. That means the victim is trying to survive. This overall quote represents that the victims are trying to survive the damage that the bully

Richard Blanco is a Cuban- American poet who was given the oppurunity to write an inaugaration poem for Barack Obama's second swearing-in. He wrote a poem titled "One Today" that praised the good and unique things about the United States and also the everyday people who's daily routines help to make America the proud country that it is.

This poem dramatizes the speaker eating plums that someone they knew was saving for breakfast. The title of this poem, “This is Just to Say”, could be telling us that this poem is written for really no other possible reason than to just tell the reader what it says. This could even be considered deep to some people even though it sounds so simple. The poem states that the speaker of the poem ate the plums and that he thinks "you”, someone that we can guess is living with the speaker, was saving for breakfast. If we are being considered as "you" and the speaker of the poem is our roommate, well, we could guess that “you” might be displeased with the speaker eating the plums that belong to “you”. The speaker tries asking for the person's forgiveness

“An Anti-Semitic Demonstration” was the more effective poem by using metaphors to explain the fear one feels during the arrival and anticipation of being sent off to a concentration camp by Nazis. During this time period life as a Jew must have been unbelievably frightening, for one was unsure of when they would be collected and where the would be taken away too. All just because of their religious beliefs or the fact they may be considered “undesirable”. Whereas in “The Family Album” they explained more about how the Jews were before their life changed forever. Neufeld does not go to explain the way they felt during the tough times of the Nazi ruling. However, he instead talks about how life was instantly changed when no one saw it coming.

“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed” declared by an influential leader Martin Luther King Jr. As a soldier againsts unfairness, King strongly states that people should fight for freedom. Driven by human nature, humans are always chasing freedom. In “A Century Later,” the Pakistan-born British poet Imtiaz Dharker uses the poetic devices of symbolism, diction, and allusion to explore how perseverance drives freedom.