Amelia Rogers Assignment 2

Four Years

New face, new faces

Introductions, find your place

But we’re practically babies

And this is no Musical.

New beginning, new words,

New lack of words

Work like unbelievable

This is new too

One year

Better?

Or something like better

Sometimes we still get lost

And not in the hallways

Keep working, it’s just the history

Of the entire world

Two years

If there was tired, this was it

If there was exhausted, this was it

If there was difficult, this was it

Worked myself sick

And deeper thoughts surround us

Like no longer New, but still new

And what does it mean to be us?

Then it’s over.

I forgot I had a life.

Three years

Old face, old silence

Or new speaking?

New babies like we were

And they call us “adults.”

This is no Musical,

But we can pretend.

Let’s soak it up before it’s gone
Four years

The tone of this poem is nostalgic, reminiscing, but also hopeful for the future. I repeatedly used the word “new” in the beginning of the poem, and then brought it back a couple of times to convey the tone of remembrance. Diction is unique to each stanza. In the first, “introductions” and “beginning” are important choices. In the third, “exhausted” and “deeper” convey the tone. I wanted the structure of each stanza to represent the feel of the year. The first stanza has lots of commas and no periods to represent the flow and rush of so many new things as a freshman. The second stanza is shorter with hardly any punctuation but longer sentences, to convey the feeling of settling in as a sophomore. The third stanza has long sentences that all run together, showing the intensity of junior year, and then the two short sentences at the end to convey how quickly it passed. Then the final stanza matches the first in format, but has a balance of syntax, showing the easier feel of senior year. I ended each stanza with the number of years to mark the time, adding to the nostalgic tone. I also alluded to the movie High School Musical to show initially wishing for a more idealistic situation, and then trying to make the best of it in the end. This conveys the tone of nostalgic, but also hopeful.