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Jerry Lee AP Literature
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Analysis of Erosion I was surprised how something so tragic and gloomy can be written so optimistically. Normally, talking about negative things positively weakens the negativity, but for this case, the optimistic tone led the poem to reach its maximum negativity. “Erosion” gave me a feeling that I would get when I watch horror movies. I wouldn’t feel much fear from a Frankenstein as I would from a little girl, with a bloody kitchen knife in her right hand and a smiling teddy bear in her left hand, walking towards me. The line breaks are used to assist readers to visualize the actual object or event. The first line of the poem has a line break after the word ‘slowly’. The complete phrase is ‘We are slowly undermined’, but breaking the line we have to scroll our eyes down which slows us down in reading even if it is just a split second. Another significant line break occurs right after that. By breaking grain by grain and inch by inch, readers can get a sense of the measure and value Pastan placed on grain and inch. It places rhythms as well. The line breaks not only amplified the meaning but also placed beats in so that it would create rhythms. Regardless of this poem being sad or happy, or, good or bad, it holds the taste of reading it due to its rhythm. As for tones, line breaks give readers a hint of heavy atmosphere. I think one reason line breaks are used is because Pastan may have not wanted readers to read this poem as if they are just reading sentences. Instead of reading it softly and quickly, reading it word by word creates much more color. What Pastan tried to extract from this poem is probably negative emotions. And sad events just don’t correspond well with fast; it is always slow. Let’s take Frankenstein (movie) we had just watched as an example. Justine’s execution, presumably a tragedy, was initiated and concluded within 5 seconds. That would not be as effective as a minute long execution scene where audiences can feel the tension and heaviness of the tragedy. My guess on theme here is inevitability. In conclusion, death seems to be inevitable despite all the efforts people have done in the poem. The line breaks slows readers down in reading speed and by doing so, readers can sense the grave of the poem in deeper depth. It seems that as readers get closer to the end of the poem, the death for the people in poem is approaching as well. No matter how tragic, sad, or slow an event is, it was inevitable from the very beginning to avoid the erosion. Rhythm, tone and theme are all interconnected. The slow rhythm creates a serious tone and serious tone creates a gloomy theme. Without the line breaks, it would just be a sad story. With the line breaks, however, it is a scary and tragic poem of inevitability.