Poems

For this paper I will be discussing three poems. They are Wood Butcher by Norman Hindley, Behind Grandma’s House by Gary Soto, and Manners by Elizabeth Bishop. I will be examining the common theme I found throughout the three poems. I found that to be how the relatives teach lessons to their relation of a younger generation and the different approaches to their teaching.

To start off I will discuss the Wood Butcher by Norman Hindley. I believe the way the father taught the son was some what like an apprenticeship. The line “I was your helper, and that first year We worked weekends through most of winter” gave me the impression that it was a watch and learn experience rather than explaining it.

Take note of how the father approached the mistakes made by his son. “I fouled up some screens once, …You broke them out with a chair” I feel showed the negative feeling I got when I read the poem. That also makes me believe that it was an apprenticeship. To me parents even if they get upset at something you do, don’t go about things in that matter. The son was trying to learn something from his father and rather than explaining and showing the son how to do it correctly or the mistakes he made the father destroys the work.

Now onto the second poem which is Behind Grandma’s House by Gary Soto. The grandmother’s approach to teaching her grandson a lesson is to beat it out of him. The poem clearly states “punched me between the eyes” which is different from the father’s approach in the Wood Butcher. She treated her grandson the way he was treating everything else. She wanted to set him strait and actually teach him a lesson. That was proven in the words “Let me help you.” The father from the Wood Butcher seemed almost annoyed because he didn’t take the time to fix the mistakes. That was demonstrated in the line “wavy frames…You broke them out with a chair.” At most he tells his son it over and over rather than showing him. “Measure twice, cut once. You said it a hundred times” I believe that maybe if he would have showed him it, it would have been different.

In the third poem, Manners by Elizabeth Bishop the grandfather takes a non-violent approach. The grandfather’s teaching method is to tell his grandson exactly how to act. “My grandfather said to me as we sat on the wagon seat, ‘Be sure to remember to always speak to everyone you meet’” showed his direct approach. The grandfather also practiced what he preached. The line ‘Good day, sir. Good day. A fine day’ proved that he really did speak to everyone he met. This is just one example, after every manner lesson he gave his grandson it gave an example of him actually doing it. I believe that this method worked the best. At the beginning it was the grandfather that spoke towards the end it turned to “we shouted ‘Good day!’” It even states that they both have good manners at the end. I found proof to that in the line “as our good manners required.”

All three of these poems had different teaching methods for the younger generation. In the Wood Butcher the father was not really straightforward or vocal about it. Like I stated earlier when his son made mistakes rather than telling or showing him what he did wrong the father instead