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Beautiful Advice

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Beautiful Advice By Alton D. Ray ENG 122 St. Leo University Professor J. Pushkin Beautiful Advice Growing up is normally considered to be a difficult time in the lives of most individuals. As children, most individuals can recall their parents sitting them down to talk about certain situations in order to give them a bit of advice. Maybe, the majority of the time, the advice may have been for their best interest and at other times just out of simple care. Yet, no matter the reason, it was done for guidance and out of love. Many times children seem to overlook the advice and wisdom of their parents, only to find their best efforts to make choices harder than expected and not as productive as they may have hoped. Yet, there are …show more content…

It creates an image as though a parent has walked in the room and noticed a bit of complexity to the face of their child. It sets a stage that instantly starts one’s mind to imagine themselves in that scene. It follows with a contradictory statement that has an undertone of carefulness, “for they go fast, and young men lose their lives in strange and unimaginable ways” (Meinke 447). This is a complete contradiction to the first two lines of the poem that insist that a person should be adventurous and wild, to utterly enjoy one’s life to the fullest of their ability and definitely not to be cautious. But, Professor Meinke continues this type of contradictory style throughout the poem. A few lines will set a precedence of a valued thought and then it is followed with something of the same nature, but clearly from the opposite end of the moral spectrum. The next lines of the first verse continues with the same type of contradictory style that adds to the advice of caution even deeper, “But at the same time, plan long range (for they go slow: if you survive the shattered windshield and the bursting shell you will arrive at our approximation here below heaven or hell)” (Meinke 447). Telling the son that there are many adversities that are encountered in a young man’s life, some are simple as car crashes and others as complex as war. Yet, the entire first verse of the poem is not what one would call rhyming, but it does

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