Poem

Hay for the Horses

ENG125 Introduction to Literature

September 20, 2012

Hay for the Horses

Although they are told in many different ways they all have something to do with life. Culture is always portrayed in some kind of writing. Culture is simply behaviors and beliefs that characterize certain social, ethnic, and age groups. Anthropology is the study of a person, and how they work. When we look at both of these two groups together it is called Cultural Anthropology.

Poems are told by a narrator and they are sometimes the person that the poem is about this is called persona of the narrator. It is very clear in the poem Hay for the Horses written by Gary Snyder ( Clugston, 2010) that he is the narrator. A good example of this being true is when he says, “I first bucked hay when I was seventeen.” ( Clugston, 2010) As you continue to read the poem it is very clear that the whole poem is about his life. He was a truck driver at one time. It is also clear that he was very sad and depressed to think that he has been doing the same job his whole life. The last few lines clearly show how he was feeling.

“I thought, that day I started,

“I sure would hate to do this all my life.

And dammit, that’s just what

I’ve gone and done.”

(Clugston, 2010)

There are a couple of symbols in the poem also. Symbols in poems have two meanings. One is a literary meaning, and the second is what an object stands for. When he says,” We stacked the bales up clean.” ( Clugston, 2010) this is an example of a symbol. If you read into what it means it is stating that he is stacking it neatly. This is how a lot of authors use symbols in their writing to make you think about what they are talking about.

When I first read the poem to myself I could really understand how he felt. He was older now, and was not totally happy with his line of work for his whole life. It made me wish I had known this man, so I could listen to his stories, and learn from them. I was a truck driver myself,...