In Hirsch’s poem “Fast Break”, written in memory of a basketball playing friend, Dennis Turner, tells us about an intense fast break play. Basketball can be a tempestuous sport to overcome, you never know when a shot could cost you a win. A fast break is an exciting play that Hirsch describes using metaphors and similes. Hirsch uses metaphors to help his readers understand how the game is played. Metaphors can be found frequently throughout the poem as he describes the fast break. By using metaphors Hirsch gives us an and exciting feeling, ”The power forward explodes past them” ( l.25 ). Hirsch gives us the feeling as if the forward is a rocket shooting past everybody. Hirsch then helps us visualize how they work together as a family, “moving
First, Malcolm McBride who is a freshman point guard for the Michigan State Spartans and is from Detroit, Michigan and plays street ball for a living. Being at Detroit, Malcolm didn’t really live in a very nice house and so he had to work hard to support his family and he really cares about his sister who passed away, so he always wants the ball all the time (Ball Hog) to make his sister proud. Malcolm symbolises what could happen when tragedy strikes but
The author used of figurative languages such as metaphor, "Already old men playing ball in a field between a row of shotgun houses and the magazine lumber company."
McPhee uses parallel elements to create a peak in action before transitioning to another section. He masters the writing elements in his comparison of Monopoly to real life. The well-thought out transitions in this piece help to make it effective, parallel scenes illustrating a parallel between a game and a reality.
As the game is to start, the first-time spectator did not know how the hockey game work. The audience the describe the player movement “a design almost beautiful as if an inspired choreographer had drilled a willing and patient and hardworking troupe of dancer” (17-20). The audience implies that the first-time spectator didn't know the player's goal is and he didn't know why the players move like that. Furthermore, the first-time spectator starts to understand as he keeps watching the game. The first-time spectator concluded “from the rapid and dedicate stroke of weapons, which like the European rapier or the Frontier pistol” (48-50). He compares the hockey stick to and European rapier of the Frontier pistol. It demonstrates that he still doesn't know a lot of hockey game but understood what is the game is about. He also describes the movement of the hockey stick as the players move the stick as a sword fighting between each other players to steal the puck. The audience wants the readers to emphasize the understanding of the first-time spectator trying to get know more about the hockey game. Using similes to compare the unknown to the
The most exciting play in basketball is the fast break. This poem outlines every detail of the fast break and does a great job using the words to create a fantastic visual for the reader. The title of the poem, “Fast Break,” is actually what the whole poem is describing. The visual that is created is one of the reasons this poem is so appealing. My love for the game of basketball, more specifically at the collegiate level is another reason why this poem catches my attention. The author, Edward Hirsch, is probably the speaker and also a coach or fan of the team that is playing. I would say that he was a player, but all five players of the team are outlined in the poem and it’s not written in the third person. The author might also be mistaken as the head coach of the team; however the poem is in memory of the late Dennis Turner, whom I believe to be the Head Coach. A fast break lasts approximately five seconds on the court and the poem outlines every motion of both the offense and defense. The author puts the fast break in slow motion for the reader so that they can understand and re-live the play in their imagination.
Instead of using strictly paragraph form, like many writers do, Bilas decided to write his information as a list rather than in traditional essay form. The list thoroughly describes how toughness affects certain basketball techniques. The idea of positioning the paragraphs into a list gives the article a very organized aspect. It is easy to look at the heading of each paragraph and know what the paragraph talks about. Despite being very organized, the list makes the article very choppy, going from one paragraph to the next. Each paragraph talks about a topic completely different from the previous one. Toughness and how it correlates with basketball is represented in each paragraph, but the main points to each paragraph do not complement each other. For example, the paragraph tiled “Set up your cut” is directly followed by a paragraph tiled, “Talk on defense” (Bilas 2). At times this can give the impression that the article is unbalanced. Although it can be unbalanced at times, each paragraph is ended by a sentence that states the positivity toughness brings. Bilas writes, “Tough players are also great teammates” (Bilas
Core Question 1: Why does the author use a metaphor on page 128, paragraph 35?
To conclude, the poem “Ex-Basketball play,” is a poem that shows the reality of life. It reflects the nature of life in the real world and it helps people who have a dream and want to pursue their goals to go for it. The poem was formally organized and provides a number of figurative languages that helps to bring out tone of the poem.
Not only the words, but the figures of speech and other such elements are important to analyzing the poem. Alliteration is seen throughout the entire poem, as in lines one through four, and seven through eight. The alliteration in one through four (whisky, waltzing, was) flows nicely, contrasting to the negativity of the first stanza, while seven through eight (countenance, could) sound unpleasing to the ear, emphasizing the mother’s disapproval. The imagery of the father beating time on the child’s head with his palm sounds harmful, as well as the image of the father’s bruised hands holding the child’s wrists. It portrays the dad as having an ultimate power over the child, instead of holding his hands, he grabs his wrists.
The verse novel, ‘The Simple Gift’ explores how relationships and place can impact detrimentally on one’s identity and sense of belonging. Herrick uses Billy to highlight how social issues such as dysfunctional families can lead to isolation and loneliness. Using first person narrative, “I”, Herrick in the poem 'Sport' establishes the barriers to belonging. Herrick uses flashback and hyperbole “he came thundering out” to highlight detachment from home prompted by Billy’s abusive alcoholic father. Detailed repetition of “I was ten years old” intensifies the poignant loss of Billy’s innocence and his displacement from a childhood sanctuary. Consequently the poem ‘Longlands Road’, uses personified enjambment, “rocks that bounce and clatter and roll and protest”, to capture the image of an angry boy who is searching for a sense of belonging. Imagery created through vivid descriptive language, “rundown and beat / the grass unmown around the doors”, depicts the impoverishment and disrepair of “Nowheresville”. While Billy’s description of “Mrs Johnston’s mailbox on the ground...” expresses his contempt and frustration. Subsequently, the ramifications of Billy’s discontent, portrayed by the sarcastic statement “It’s the only time my school has come in ...
Diction is used through out the poem Execution to effectively portray the Coach's character through out the story and the battle he is fighting with cancer. In the story the game of football was used with an extended symbolic meaning representing the game of life. At the beginning of the story Hirsch used phrases...
...onal confusion comes his inability to accept his brother Allie’s premature death. Through characterization, symbolism, and internal and external conflict, Salinger uses the baseball mitt, the red hunting hat, and the carousel to explore the protagonist struggle to resolve his grief.
The poem begins by introducing the main figure in the poem, a naturally talented baseball player named Hector Moreno. To the narrator, the game of baseball is more than just a simple game, “it [is] a figure – Hector Moreno” (6). Describing Hector Moreno initially as a figure closely associated with the game of baseball shows just how revered a person Hector is in the narrator’s mind. This image of Hector Moreno is quite concrete, but as the poem continues, the narrator expresses to the reader that his father died sometime during his childhood, as “his [father’s] face no longer [hangs] over the table” (18). Suddenly the image of Hector Moreno is not as concrete as it first appears, especially through the lines leading up to Moreno’s first appearance on the baseball field “in the lengthening shade” (4-5). The shadow of the narrator’s father over the dinner table when he was a boy has now taken the form of Moreno’s figure in the shade over the baseball field since the narrator’s father has died. This initial me...
“Thata way Thomas!” she would yell as he kept making his free throws. She enjoyed watching Thomas, even if she could only adore him from a distance. The man of her dreams was guiding his teammates toward victory. His techniques and strategies toward the competition argued her to be more involved with the game. “Here we go, Thomas!” She hollered when he recovered a loose ball. The game’s intensity was rapidly growing, baskets were being made from both side of the court. With three minutes until halftime, the referees blew the whistle to give Thomas his third
Marianne Moore wasn't just a modernist poet, she was also a sports fan. Although the poem took a couple times of me reading to finally understand the poem. It seems like Moore wasn't at the game by they would she used. She talked about the "Owlman watching from the press box" which was giving us the assumption that she could be listening to it on the radio. Since Moore can't see the game herself, she has to go off of the commentator and try to visualize what is happening. The exact same thing happens when we have to read it ourselves, we have rely on Moore to give the details us. This is one of the reasons I believe make the poems so interesting to read. We get to hear the facts but we also get to imagine the rest.