Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Response to: Tornado

I found in interesting how the poem was not so much about the Tornado itself, but rather about the boy Lyle. Throughout the poem, Lyle was portrayed as the nine year old that was used as the go-getter, of not much importance. He was described as "the catcher" for both sides because he was "slow". After reading the first 5 lines, emotions that struck me were sympathy for lyle; if he knew of the way the others felt about him or if he was completely oblivious. When the tornado scene appears, they explain the boys hiding under the pews, all except Lyle. I believe that is the turning point in the poem as the boys watch lyle 'parading around the infield, holding the fish with blood on its gills like he had caught it over home plate.' I think at that moment, the boys' perception of lyle changed. Not only had he survived the strong tornado that had uprooted everything around it, but the poem related the fish incident back to baseball to make him look like the hero of the story. The use of language was formal and contained many descriptive uses of dialogue. in the last sentecne of the poem, he reflects back to Lyle's unathleticism of baseball and how their view of him has changed.

1 comment:

  1. I agree that it is strange how the poem was mostly about Lyle and playing ball then the tornado itself. It's very interesting!

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