Anne Russell Assignment 2

A blur

From anxious first days
To excited last days,
New faces became best friends
Best friends faded to old faces
Love interests came and went
Becoming somebody You used to know
We suffered through some teachers
And cherished others
We cried going into some classes
And cried coming out of Mr. Pope's
Laughing every time he said "I'm kidding about that!"
We all outgrew our awkward freshman year phase
Feeling a little more sure of ourselves sophomore year
We somehow survived junior year
After God knows how many AP tests
And long days and longer weeks
That passed much faster in hindsight
Full of late nights to study for tests
And fun weekends that never lasted long enough
And here we are, seniors
Somehow at the top of the food chain
Forced to think about college and the real world
And what we are truly passionate about
We all grew together
While at the same time we all grew apart
Pursuing our own unique paths
That will separate before we know it
I thought we were freshman just yesterday
Tell me, how Did it all go by so
Fast?

I intended for my poem to have a reminiscent tone as I looked back on my collection of memories from my high school years. I also wanted to convey as I reminisced how quickly it all went by, which I mainly achieved through my use of syntax. I made my entire poem one long run-on sentence to illustrate that school dragged on while we were in the middle of it, but looking back on it, it went by so quickly, just as reading my poem in one swing can leave you out of breath. My main allusion was to Mr. Pope's class because he really impacted my high school experience and I knew that his reference would be understood by my audience, mainly Mr. Spalding and my peers. Because of everyone's familiarity with him, this creates a reminiscent tone because many of us look back fondly on our memories of him, which is exactly what I'm trying to recreate with my poem as a whole. My imagery and diction worked hand in hand as I tried to bring back images of the "anxious" freshmen and awkward first day. And for more diction choices, I tried to use more descriptive verbs like "suffered"  and "cherished" to relive the very real emotions that high school brings out in all of us. The title, "A blur," reflects the effect of my syntax, wanting to convey how quickly it went by. All of my diction, imagery, syntax, and allusions play into the memories that I recall to create the reminiscent tone that I was going for.