The Unauthorized Autobiography of Me by Sherman J Alexie - Article Example

 Alexie was given the joy of music by his mother, and the author projected that joy in the world around him to illuminate the people that he knew and the world that he lived in. Those Winter SundaysIn what respects does this poem sound like conversational proseIn what respects is it "poetic"Robert Hayden's poem "Those Winter Sundays" is a symbiotic blending of harshness and tenderness told through the vehicles of prose and poetry. The poem is set off by a mixture of conversational tones that anyone could have with their neighbor or childhood friend.

Hayden writes, "Sundays too my father got up early", "From labor in the weekday weather made". The author tells of his father's dedication to work and to the family with a casual reference to Sunday and labor. In lines 7 and 8 he writes, "When the rooms were warm, he'd call, and slowly I would rise and dress". The author is speaking to his audience without rhyme and a sense of storytelling.Woven between the prose are the poetic devices that drive the poem. Hayden uses the phrases "blue-black cold" and "cracked hands that ached".

The author uses consonance with the hard "c" sound to contrast the casual conversation taking place in the background. He continues "banked fires blaze.cold splintering, breaking. fearing the chronic waves of the anger of that house". Hayden's poetic choice of words relates the blazing fire to the unspoken anger in the household. In lines 13 and 14 he combines the prose with the poetry to say, "What did I know, what did I know of love's austere and lonely offices". The author pulls the listener into the conversation with the innocent "What did I know" and leaves them with a poetic definition of the elusiveness of love.