Lisa Parker's Snapping Beans

538 Words2 Pages

Feeling fearful and homesick is always uncomfortable, but family always seems to make everything so much more soothing. The notorious “Snapping Beans”, written by Lisa Parker in 1998, is a free verse poem. The speaker is enrolled in a northern college, but is home and visiting her Grandmother for the weekend. She sits on the porch with her and snaps peas almost as if to relieve her stress. The speaker is most definitely a complex individual who worries about what her family may think of her college experiences. “Snapping Beans” is about a young college girl who is trying to juggle her 2 completely different worlds without disappointing her family. Her college home is clashing with the values that her family has. It is apparent that she obviously is not from the north and lives almost on a southern farm type atmosphere. “Cornstalk”, “porchfront”, “evening star”, and “a-goin” are all figures of speech used to describe this setting. They paint almost a countryside picture. She is yet to become accustomed to her college life and long to be back home. The speaker is most definitely a complex character with deep thoughts. She uses wording such as “a swig of strychnine”, “I was tearing/splitting myself apart”, and …show more content…

The poem explains her hardships. Reading poetry is different from reading prose because you really have to dig deeper and study harder. A poem is not always straight forward like many other writings. You have to use context clues and understand imagery, tone, and sense. Summarizing a poem becomes difficult if you do not re-read several times. I learned that figurative language and lifestyle really tells a great story. Language especially helps you understand what is going on between the lines. Overall, family is always there at the end of the day. Sometimes situations get tough, but there is always a light at the end of the

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