Monday, February 20, 2012
By Saturday, February 25th at midnight...
This week, read "Saturday at the Canal" by Gary Soto. I think "voice" is an important aspect of this poem. Who is speaking? What is the speaker saying, about life, about his life? What do the various images in the poem tell you about the speaker's attitude toward his life? Quote some examples and discuss what they show. What else do you have to say about this poem?
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ReplyDeleteThis poem “Saturday at the Canal", i believe, is about a teenager that is thinking about his life. The first six lines are about his thoughts on his high school. He is out of high school because in line 2, it states that "School was a sharp check mark in the roll book,". He has marked off going to school in his life since he is done with high school. He didn’t like high school very much because all he speaks is of the negative aspects. Lines 1 thru 6 have a loathsome tone to them. The author uses words like “obnoxious”, stank”, and “unwashed” to portray the school as an unattractive place to be. Then he goes onto speaking of the canal. The word “warming” in line 8, contrasts the canal as a more inviting and attractive place than the school. I think the teenager enjoys the outdoors much more than anywhere else. He also speaks of going to San Francisco, but he is sad because it’s only “a postcard on a bedroom wall.” (line 10) I can also tell he enjoys the outdoors by the way he speaks of his longing to be in San Francisco. He wants to “Hitchhike under the last migrating birds And be with people who know more than three chords” (line 13). Overall I think he is not happy with his life just being stuck at home. I think he wants to live his life outdoors, being adventurous. The last line states that “[Their] eyes followed the water, White-tipped but dark underneath, racing out of town.” I think the water is a metaphor to the teenager and his friend. They also want to race out of town and leave to somewhere more exciting and adventurous.
ReplyDeleteTo elaborate on the outdoors observation. "A friend and I sat watching the water on Saturday,Neither of us talking much, just warming ourselves". His Saturdays or weekends, when kids are usually out having fun, consist of no conversation by the water with only the sun to give them warmth; perhaps winter has just began. The word "warming" is pleasant yet his environment all around him is disagreeable and he shows no desire to reside in his hometown.
Delete"By hurling large rocks at the dusty ground" Throwing rocks suggests major boredom. Dust represents neglected earth that hasn't been watered or cultivated, a metaphor, just like he hasn't been intellectually developed; he is the "dust".
"Hitchhike under the last migrating birds" before the winter is up he envisions himself in an other place, San Francisco where multicultural bloom. This gives the impression his town has no enthusiasm for humanities and arts.
"...And be with people who knew more than three chords
On a guitar" gives the notion his home communities wasn't bright and didn't challenge his mental perception and therefore he remains latent. This was an indirect insult, calling the people moronic because they didn't "know more than three cords".
"We didn't drink or smoke, but our hair was shoulder length, wild when the wind picked up" here he has an innocent fresh curiosity soul. "The years froze as we sat on the bank." His wild spirit is unable to furious in his cultural restricting town. And over all the tone limits the readers excitement and leaves the speaker with an adapted meek persona.
“Saturday at the Canal” is a poem, I’m assuming, about a teenager reminiscing on his high school years as a teenager. He admits willingly that he is an outcast, as well as his friend who accompanies him at the canal. After reading a couple of lines, I can say confidently that the speaker clearly didn’t enjoy high school. I have to agree with Jasmine that his perspective is negative, however there is a sense that he has come to accept his position and status as a teenager. His outlook on high school is without a doubt negative in the way he viewed the teachers, the students, and the activities going on throughout a typical day. Perhaps, and most likely, the canal was his outlet, his play to take refuge from all the things in his life which he may have not understood, or on the contrary, that didn’t understand him. This can be depicted in the following quote: "...And be with people who knew more than three chords On a guitar". The speaker talks about San Francisco. As an audience we can come to the conclusion that he could be from a small town as Istantoscoy pointed out. In the following quote we get the sense that by moving out of town, he and his friend, or perhaps just even himself could be around more of their crowd and scenery, and find comfort in belonging somewhere: "We didn't drink or smoke, but our hair was shoulder length, wild when the wind picked up".
ReplyDeleteSaturday at the canal" is a poem that i can relate to, as he said he hopes to be happy by 17, maybe school was hard for him, also he describes the tuba kind of to early for his ears to hear as the band plays at night. long hair dont care attitude.
ReplyDeleteI can tell the speaker enjoys the outdoors, and really now that he sees his past maybe he would of learn more if the people have learn more than 3 chords of guitar. His innocence shows he didnt smoke or drink and that have help his imagination to see the ways very different.His persona was bearly found and now he shows the way it was and sees the limit of his curiosity.
Tying into what Yasmine and Gruver both said, I heard through the voice of the poem that the speaker is not necessarily happy with life in high school, ready to be done with it. Evidence of this is when the speaker talks about the loneliness felt, and even the dirt was lonely; “This loneliness gripped loose dirt”.
ReplyDeleteI really liked the use of the description of the hallways, how they “Stank of poor grades and unwashed hair”. It has a way of immersing the reader at that very instant. And throughout the entire poem the speaker continues to teleport the reader back in time instantly to those oh-so-fond memories. The commonality with the near every human experience of high school, even those that had a good high school experience, can still relate extremely well with what the speaker is talking about due to the voice.
Another example of this brilliant voice used is how the he teachers were “too close to dying to understand”. What student didn’t at one point in time feel that their teachers were simply too old to understand how they were really feeling?
Enjoying this poem, I think that the first line of the poem takes the cake. “I was hoping to be happy by seventeen”. Wow, what a profound statement, and now the speaker and the voice relates with every human, not just the high school experienced. Those days when one looks at self, and says, ‘I’m not where I maybe wanted to be or hoped to be, why am I not happier’, or simply, I thought I would be happier by now. From here on out, the speaker simply reflects on how life isn’t quite what he expected, and the rest is how life demonstrates this, examples of this and how he is dealing or wishes to deal with life as it is.
“Saturday at the Canal” I consider that this poem is referring to a teenager how lives in a small town where they are not much educated or have a good education. This teenager wants to go out and explore some other stuff, and the teachers are not very bright teachers. The speaker is a seventeenth teenager and as it is very common on guys at that age is the phase that they want to explore. But It is a rural place and he is not happy with what he sees. He is very uncomfortable with the lifestyle he has, he fells superior to what his hometown can deliver.
ReplyDelete"Saturday at the Canal" by Gary Soto is one of the very few poems I can actually relate to. I was only in high school a year ago, and these memories and thoughts are still very fresh. I feel as if the speaker could even be living in El Paso among us. El Paso has a bad reputation of being boring for teenagers as it is compared to other great cities full of entertainment such as Austin or more like New York City. I related this to "And feeling awful because San Francisco was a postcard on a bedroom wall. We wanted to go there, hitchhike under the last migrating birds and be with people who knew more than three chords on a guitar."
ReplyDeleteIn this poem I also sense some innosence. This teenager clearly doesn't know about the struggles of making your own living and doesn't realize how easy he has it at home now. But because he is also poorly educated, he cannot think beyond being free in a city full of better entertaining things for him. "The teachers were too close to dying to understand. The hallways stank of poor grades and unwashed hair."
This is personally now a new favorite poem, for it keeps the reader interested on reading till the end, even though it is only talking negatively of a boring teenager's life.
In "Saturday At The Canal" by Gary Soto the speaker of in the poem is not where he expected to be as a teenager. "I was hoping to be happy by seventeen." He describes his high school as having old boring teachers and smelly hall ways, " The teachers were
ReplyDeleteToo close to dying to understand. The hallways
Stank of poor grades and unwashed hair." He describes him and his friend as having wild crazy shoulder lenght hair.
I think that could hint to the fact that maybe they were picked on. I believe that many high school students can relate to the speaker of the poem. WIth disliking school and teachers and having big dreams to go to a big city, like how the speaker wants to go to san fransisco.
HOwever in the final stanza where he states, " By bus or car,
By the sway of train over a long bridge,
We wanted to get out. The years froze
As we sat on the bank. Our eyes followed the water,
White-tipped but dark underneath, racing out of town." I think the water represents their dream of getting out that as the years passed by they just watched it flow away, in other words they never left.
The speaker in “Saturday at the Canal” seems to be a seventeen year old, perhaps a male. I initially thought that he had either graduated or dropped out of school as the past tense is being used but reading further I can see that it could just be the context with which he was speaking or thinking being that it was a Saturday and not a school day. You would think that he may live in a small town. Not sure if that town is near San Francisco or across the US and he just happens to have a post card depicting the city but it’s clear he desperately wants to go there. I am not seeing that he enjoyed high school as opposed to just having to be there. “We wanted to go there….” “….and be with people who knew more than three chords on a guitar.” Maybe he thinks that life where he lives is boring not holding any interest for him but yet San Francisco was the place for him and his friend.
ReplyDeleteThe poem “Saturday at the Canal” by Gary Soto narrates a story of a teenager. The writer was anxious to become seventeen because he appeared to be tired of his life at school. Evidence of this is seen in line 2 which states “school was a sharp check mark in the roll book”. This could mean he had struggled enough is school and was ready to leave. The images depicted in the poem show a sense of what life was like at his school and what took place. Student had great school pride where line 3 tells us “An obnoxious tuba playing at noon because our team was going to win at night”. It also shows that he liked to travel and he was interested in music. Also, the narrator seems to like the outdoors and going out a lot. This can be seen in lines 8-11 which say “Neither of us talking much, just warming ourselves by hurling large rocks at the dusty ground and feeling awful because San Francisco was a postcard on a bedroom wall”. The poet also strived to be free and his attitude towards life was very much like observing nature and enjoying the little things.
ReplyDeleteI can not personally relate to this poem, maybe because I was the the tuba player vain fully tutting my horn, never having time to think about how boring school was or had the chance just to sit around and feel gloomy. I enjoyed school not because it was school, but because I had bigger goals after school. In the first Stanza when the speaker says " I was hoping to be happy by seventeen" I think it is because his only goal was probable just to get through school. My best friend had that same mind set, just get through high school and things would get better after that, but unfortunately you need bigger goals to be happy with life. If you notice at the end the speaker is talking about the water racing out of town. I feel that the speaker wants to be a part of the water to get out, but just doesn't know how.
ReplyDelete