In the poem “Declaration,” we read how the author and his people beat “Him.” After reading the poem and seeing the picture, you can conclude that “Him” is the British king and that the author is most likely an American colonist. The author is exhausted, angry, but still hopeful of an independent country. Regardless of how many injuries they’ve handled by the British king’s men, as said near the end of the poem, the author and his people will keep fighting for what they deserve. He splits the poetry in these dashes with long spaces and each saying “our,” implying that “our” people suffer and are hurting tremendously with the king’s actions. Finally, Tracy realizes words won’t get the point across anymore, so he stops talking. With this attitude, passion, and force, the reader can assume that the American Revolution will occur very soon. In addition, the picture shows what seems to be a hall of American colonists speaking their experiences, ideas, and opinions on the problems they face. They look solemn and desperate for change in their nation.
3 thoughts on ““Declaration” Analysis”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
RESPONSE 3 OUT OF 3: Why do you think Smith split the essay with dashes and long spaces? What would change in the meaning of the poem that you laid out in your rhetorical analysis if the speaker of this author were Smith instead of the American colonist?
I agree with you – I made the same interpretation myself. All of the mentioning of “Him’ is clearly referring to a person of much higher status, where their command means absolute, with no question. All of these points point back towards the King of Britain, who basically leeches of a nation that is across the sea, while the people living there aren’t even sharing the same land as them, and they still have to give up everything to them. These all lead up to the war that will break the chain that binds them – the American revolution.
I see that both Egan and I shared the same ideas about the poem from the use of “Him” as the king of Britain to the suffering and rebellion of the Americans to fight for what they deserve. The use of the dashes and spaces with the word “our”makes the actions more pronounced but what do you think the long spaces mean? Or maybe they think you mentioned after that words will not get to the point anymore.