#212 “Money” by Victor Contoski pg. 279

Throughout the poem, many of the stanzas hold examples of a satirical comment on humankinds’ use or view of money. The most obvious of the commentaries is in the stanza which reads:

“It will delight your friends,
shake hands with men
like a god and lick
the legs of women.”

The stanza comments on how money is used anywhere from entertainment to bribes. This one stanza points out the point that humankind depends too much on money and what it can buy.

If not for the title, the personification in the poem would prevent any connection to money at all. The author uses specific diction such as “domesticated” and “nest” to make money sound as if it were an animal. This use of personification to make money sound vicious is continued in the last stanza when the author describes how when the money will “bite you gently on the hand” that “There will be no pain but in thirty seconds the poison will reach your heart.” This personification also ties into the satirical commentary on money and how it poisons a person and is bad for the health.

This poem quite blatantly negates the saying that money can buy happiness. I enjoyed the satirical aspects of the poem, and how it had a darker sense of humor to it. What made the poem more enjoyable was Contoski’s use of animalistic verbs and adjectives to make money sound like a vicious and conniving being. 

#203 “On Reading Poems to a Senior Class at South High” by D.C. Berry pg. 273

In the first stanza, the author establishes an extended metaphor of the students as fish when he initially describes the class “as orderly as frozen fish in a package.” Each stanza brings in a different aspect of aquatic life when mentioning that “water began to fill the room” or “we swam around the room like thirty tails whacking words”. The steady use of the aquatic metaphor emphasizes how the greater part of high school students do not understand nor appreciate poetry.

At the end of the poem, Berry uses the allusion to Queen Elizabeth to accentuate the narrator’s appreciation for the arts and culture. Though the narrator named the cat after the queen, this also shows that the arts and culture are something that are he finds as very important since pets become an important part of a person’s life.

As a high school student, I could sympathize with the narrator. Many high school students do not appreciate poetry in the slightest. It is even more difficult to read a poem to students without being watched with blank and uninterested stares. Similarly, I like how the narrator named his cat after Queen Elizabeth; this bit of information about the narrator helps to make him more relatable and lifelike. Overall, I found this poem very fun to read, and surprisingly fun to analyze.