Explanation of "Solstice"

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Terrance Hewitt Poetry Explanation Morehouse College English 103 11:00 am Friday November 16, 2012 In the book of poems, Life On Mars, Tracy K. Smith uses many different literary elements in each stanza of her poems to keep the reader inquiring. Using them causes the reader to stay engaged throughout the entire book and wonder how each poem is related to one another. My favorite poem in this book is “Solstice”. In this poem, Smith uses symbolism as well as makes several allusion which give the poem a much deeper meaning. “They’re gassing geese outside of JFK.” This is the first line of the poem. The term “gassing geese” seems to remind me of white-machined birds flying in the air. This causes the first thing for to me to visualize being the sight of airplanes flying around JFK airport, an airport located in New York. The next line mentions Tehran, which is a city in Iran. When mentions of airplanes, New York, and the Middle East are placed together, it is common to think that the author is alluding to the attacks on our World Trade Center in 2001. However, this is not the case. None of the airplanes used to attack our nations came from JFK airport. When doing further reading, I noticed the author says “ whole flocks are being gassed near JFK” and that “they’re going to make the opposition pay.” It is clear now that her allusion to our country’s War on Terror. These “whole flocks” had to be fleets of planes being sent over seas to avenge the death of our nation’s tallest twins. These same “geese” “taught you once to pray” “to any god” when they where used against us. Now we just sit and watch as they do the same to other nations. This poem seems to have one underlying message: The country that we live in is a very corrupt country whose morals are contradicting. According to this poem, the citizens of this country will get on their knees and pray “to

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