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The poems that I have chosen for the Eating Poetry project, share the common theme of wisdom passed down from parent to children. In "Mother to Son", the mother is trying to get a message across to her son that she has overcome many challenges in life and she is still pushing forwards. Meanwhile, in "First Lesson" and "A Daughter Leaving Home" each parent gives a similar message to his or her daughter. The parents realize that their children will eventually have to face life on their own and they are trying to offer their children advice about how to cope in the world. Also, all the poems contain vivid imagery. In "Mother to Son", Langston Hughes compares life problems to torn boards, tacks, and splinters in an old staircase. In "First lesson", surviving in life is compared to learning to float in he ocean. In a "A Daughter Leaving Home", "Hair flapping like a handkerchief" symbolizes a young daughters triumphant and growing independent ." Despite these similarities the poem differs in there use of language. While, Langston Hughes writes it in African American dialogue, the other two poems use standard English grammar. Furthermore, even though each parent in all the poems are telling advice to there child, however, they are giving a different message in each poem. Like in "Mother to Son", she advises her son to push forwards and keep working strong. As in for "First Lesson", the message is to stop, hesitate, and have an outlook on life. In other words, hang loose, and explore all the fascination and beauty that surrounds you. In addition, the message in "A Daughter Leaving Home" is speaking from a mothers point of view and saying how fast your children grow up and that once you know it, there is going to be that time where you are going to have to say goodbye to them.

The theme is evident in each poem because at the beginning of all the poems, the parent speaks to his or her child, which tells the reader that the poem is going to be about either a mother to son relationship or father to daughter relationship. In addition, two of the poems titles directly indicate that the poem is addressed to a child- Mother to Son and A Daughter Leaving Home. In "Mother to Son", the first line "Well, son, I'll tell you", makes it clear that the mother is directly addressing her child. When reading the poem a couple times over, the reader notices that the parents are giving guidance to their children because they are telling them about how life treats you and the parents are speaking to their children in a serious, but rather soft tone. The reader can imagine ithat either the father or mother is sitting in a room or outside with their kid, and speaking to them face to face, while giving important advice that will get them far in life. The poem that had the most effect on me was "A Daughter Leaving Home", because I just watched my mom say goodbye to her only daughter, who left to go to college. She looked back on the times she shared with the girl who just left her, the times they went shopping, or talked about their favorite shows, or straightened each others hair, but now my mom realizes she can't do that anymore. She is overcoming a big obstacle, by not seeing her daughter every day, and instead receiving 5 phone calls a day, but she still knows the close relationship they share and always will.

Thanks, Spencer. Great job connecting the poem to your own experiences!