Cesar De Leon Pereira

English 110

Oh Hateful One, with words so sharp,

Why do you spread your venomous harp?

Your hate and judgment leave a mark,

And blind you to the beauty of the world’s spark.

Do you not see the harm you cause,

With your intolerance and unjust laws?

Your prejudice and bias give pause,

To those who see the beauty in diversity’s claws.

What of those whose love is different,

Do you not see how your words are indifferent?

Your closed-mindedness makes it hard to claim,

The right to love without blame.

Oh Hateful One, please hear this plea,

And let your heart and mind be free,

Embrace the differences you see,

And let true equality be your key.

For when we embrace each other’s differences,

We’ll find a world full of endless instances,

Of kindness, love, and warm consistencies,

And a humanity that thrives in all existences.

The purpose of this poem was to put into question acts of bigotry of individuals as well as in the formation of legislations, and to provide a call to action for those people in order to incentivize them to become more open minded and accepting. The poem very obviously intends to condone these acts of bigotry, as not only those it state to stand against it, but it also names the people for which hatred the author is against as “hateful”, clearly showing that the purpose of the text is to depict those beliefs in a negative light. However, it does not intend to mock or demonize this so-called “Hateful One”, as the entirety of the poem is to try to convince people of that mindset to change their minds and stand with them, rather than against them. The identity of this figure being questioned is also never elaborated. Though this makes the poem very vague, with no specific target, it also makes it so it becomes far more focused in criticizing the act of hatred itself, rather than the person or movement behind it. A specific target would have made the poem bound to a sole context and time period. In the third stanza, the poem alludes to the idea of marriage equality and tries to argue how the push against it is detrimental.

The poem is target mainly at those who heavily oppose the idea of same sex marriage both in social and legal platforms. The poem is mostly written from the perspective of someone directly addressing this audience of people who oppose this type of unions, and uses its language to try to open their eyes to the idea of equality. This could also be interpreted as something directly addressed to lawmakers who advocate for the removal of gay marriage as a constitutional protection in the United States or anywhere around the globe. This text is also obviously targeted at anyone who is part of the LGBT community, as the appeal made by the author directly involves them and an ongoing conflict for which they fight for. 

The poem makes use of the rhetorical device of pathos through the use of emotionally charged language. The presence of words such as “harm”, “venomous” or “hateful” indicate powerful negative feelings towards the actions taken by this character for which this poem is being addressed to. It helps the reader understand the oppressive feelings of being met with the effects of these bigoted actions and ideas. The text also utilized pathos by building a vivid imagery of the damage caused by this “Hateful One”. For example, the line “Your hate and judgment leave a mark” make it clear that the effects of these ideals have a long lasting impact on this community, and this description makes it easier for the reader to visualize the scars left by prejudice. Finally, the author appeals to empathy. The line “Do you not see how your words are indifferent?” appeals to the reader’s sense of empathy by asking them to imagine themselves in the shoes of someone who is different from themselves. It makes the audience ponder how their lack of actions might be of detriment to an entire community.

This poem uses Ethos as the author is someone who has closely worked and experienced the struggle of people, not only in regards to the experience of marriage equality, but in other social movements. Though the author is certainly no expert nor do they have proper authority to give concrete and professional opinions in regards to the topic at hand. Logos is loosely used here as well, as there is no statistical evidence, however, the poem is structured much like an argument, and those argumentative qualities could be perceived as logical reasoning to an extent. The entirety of the second stanza of the poem is essentially giving the audience a logical description of the effects and detriments of their biases in a legal perspective. 

Cesar De Leon Pereira

English 110

The Sun radiates a majestic gleam of beauty,

Its flash illuminates the whole city.

The busy streets light up everywhere 

With not a single dark spot to catch your glare

You have an undisturbed sight,

No matter if it’s day or night.

But you’re blind.

You can’t see

The flashing lights are too many 

You can look at everything,

But you can’t see any.

The sounds of the people sing a beautiful melody,

Their conversations full of interest and chemistry.

Noises of the city reach every corner,

Eight and a half million tones that can make any day warmer.

Your hearing lacks no reach,

For you are within earshot of all speech.

But you’re deaf.

You can’t hear

The cacophonous sounds are deafening 

You can hear everyone

But all their discernibility is gone.

The paths for which to walk are endless,

The possibilities of each route are mysterious and boundless.

All these tracks converge at a single point

And to the ways of the city, you are its joints.

You have unlimited ways in which to go

With none to decide when and where you flow.

But you’re stuck.

You can’t move

None of these paths seem amusing,

The choices are far too overwhelming,

Making one would be too confusing.

A big apple full of life,

So rich, beautiful and diverse.

Of languages enriched with personality and rhymes

With horizons too massive to observe. 

Yet it’s all so dead and disorienting

You have too much to see

Too much to hear

Too much do

Maybe you have nothing at all.

The main purpose of the poem “The City” is to provide criticism to the fast paced and over-stimulated nature of urban life. It is meant to portray the abundance of options presented to an individual in such environments as something that is highly detrimental to their decision making and resolve. It essentially provokes the thought that too many choices and “infinite” possibilities ultimately make it impossible for one to make a concrete decision on which path we desire to take., as all of the options before us do nothing but create confusion. This is evidenced in the text, as the stimulants described in each stanza are portrayed in a very disorienting way, as they are stated to inhibit and debilitate the very senses used to perceive them. 

The targeted audience for this poem are mostly those who are living in large urban centers. This description of a busy life full of noise and bright lights is not as applicable to smaller towns or cities, making it difficult for some of those people to relate. The imagery created within the people clearly depicts a setting of a large metropolis, and in the first line of the last stanza, the term “big apple” is used, making it known that the text specifically refers to the city of New York. Though  this is not meant to be directed specifically at New Yorkers, as most urban residents can to some extent relate to this setting, it is not intended to connect with those who have never experienced this lifestyle on a personal level. However, it can also be directed to rural readers as a personal insight as to what it feels to live in such an environment. This poem is also targeted towards older audiences. It is aimed mostly at those who are above the age of 18, or that have left highschool, as the exponentially higher amount of choices as well as the lack of direction acquired once out of school makes this age group relevant to this text. 

The poem mostly uses pathos, or emotional appeal, to evoke a sense of overwhelming confusion and disorientation. The author describes the city as a place of great beauty and opportunity, but also a place where one can feel lost and disconnected. The use of sensory language, such as sight, sound, and movement, allows the reader to connect with the emotions of the speaker and understand their experience. In the first stanza, the speaker describes the beauty of the sun and the lights of the city, creating a vivid image of the surroundings. However, the use of the word “blind” emphasizes the sense of being overwhelmed and unable to take in everything at once. This process of describing a stimuli to one’s senses just to then describe them as the very cause for the inhibition of those very senses is repeatedly used in the same structure for the first three stanzas. The repetition present in the text present with the oppressive feelings conveyed by the disorienting descriptions of the various senses create a very claustrophobic imagery for the reader, and drive in the overwhelming nature of the feelings created by the perception of an urban environment. The positive language used to describe the stimuli such as “majestic beam” or “beautiful melody” are a stark contrast to the negative connotation in which they are depicted at the end of every stanza, which help portray the idea that all of these endless choices, though being seemingly incredible, can often be a true nightmare to experience. Finally, the consistent use of the second person makes the text far more direct, aggressive and imposing with its ideas.  

In this poem, the author uses ethos by drawing upon personal experience and expertise as a student and daily commuter in the city of New York. The author’s personal experience living in the city of New York lends credibility to their descriptions of the city’s sights, sounds, and paths. For example, the speaker’s description of the “lights of the town” and the “sounds of the people” are likely drawn from personal observations of the city. By presenting these observations as firsthand experiences, the speaker establishes their credibility as a reliable source of information about the city. Furthermore, the author’s use of sensory language in the poem, such as the “majestic gleam of beauty” and the “beautiful melody” create a strong sense of personal attachment to the setting being described by them. 

The use of logos in the poem is quite scarce, as accurate descriptions and real statistics are not a focus of this work, however, there are still some instances of it. Firstly, the poem describes “Eight and a half million tones” in the second stanza, which is a mostly accurate count of the population of New York City, which is where the setting of the text is based on. The use of paradoxical language within the text could also be viewed as logic. Describing a scenery when everything can be seen/heard, yet describing the character as deaf and blind is illogical, and that paradoxical description emphasizes the idea that too many possibilities might diminish the choices someone is willing to make.