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Big Rock Candy Mountain

Decent Essays

Today I was given a set of poems to read and choose one to analyze. I decided I would use Big Rock Candy Mountain as my poem of choice. I recognize this poem as a song written by Harry McClintock in 1928. The song is one of the few that can still make sense in today’s culture and society and in my opinion is the mark of a truly great writer. The speaker of the poem is a hobo that was hiking on the trails. Given that the poem was written in 1928, during the Great Depression, he sounds wistful and hopeful of the mystical Big Rock Candy Mountains. He is talking to some folks he happened to pass by on his way down the track. The speaker ultimately sounds like someone who is down on their luck and only has hope left. Without taking the time frame in which the poem was written, you can feel an undertone of depression and longing. Throughout the poem, the hobo speaks about this perfect paradise in the Big Rock Candy …show more content…

The only word that is never rhymed is the word “Mountains” which is the last line of every stanza. I feel the writer chose not to rhyme it to further set the Big Rock Candy Mountains apart as paradise on Earth. The title of the poem as well as it being the last line of each stanza further emphasizes this.
The Big Rock Candy Mountain is the hobo’s version of paradise on Earth. The theme for this poem is dreams and wishful thinking. The author illustrates this by having the poem have a nice upbeat tone to it. Where all your hopes and dreams will come true and you can just spend your day how you may.
Poems like these are still written in today’s society but are expressed through different mediums than the poetry of old. While this song was originally released in 1928, it didn’t gain popularity until 1939. In today’s society, poems are found more often in music than in a book, although those are common too. Song’s in today’s society often rhyme or tell a story and can be analyzed just as poetry

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