ENG 102: Literature and Composition
The poet Tony Hoagland was born in 1953 in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, his father was an army
doctor. Therefore, he grew up on army bases in Hawaii, Alabama, Ethiopia, and Texas
(Anderson). The poet considers himself a “very typical middle–class American” (Hoagland,
“Transcript: Tony Hoagland”). Through poems such as “America,” “The Change,” and
“Personal” the poet describes the American lifestyle. Hoagland, believed that poems “try to solve
the problems of human nature” and that can be “enormously useful to people” (Hoagland).
[BRCA1] He recognizes the issues of racism, money, and other’s people perspective; in that way
the poems make a good thematic grouping. Being consumed is like quicksand; it will devour a
person and trap them. The main common components in all three poems are the uses of
metaphor, juxtaposition and first person point of view to show how a person can be consumed by
these issues without noticing it.
Hoagland’s main focus was based on contemporary American culture and life. The following
poems portray the impact of being consumed by issues. The poet writes all three poems in
contemporary style which is commonly free verse. The form of all poems have unrhymed
couplets, quatrains, and sensory language that readers can see and hear. In addition, the poet uses
juxtaposition in all three poems to compare the old generation versus the new generation. The
poet uses first person in the three poems to include the speaker or narrator as part of the issue. In
“America,” metaphors are used to show the theme of being consumed by money. In “The
Change,” metaphors are used to show the issue of racism and how American society is devoured
by it. In “Personal,” metaphors are used to demonstrate the theme of being consumed by other’s
perspectives.
In “America” the poet shows how one is devour by consumerism through metaphors. In one of
the couplets, one begins with a dream “I remember that when I stabbed my father in the dream
las night, / It was not blood but money” (Lines 13, 14). The poet is actually helping his father by
stabbing him. In the dream, the father thanks his son, and says, “And so I perish happily, freed
from that which kept me from my liberty.” The subtle metaphor of America is money comes to
the forefront. The poem in the dream becomes a dream sign, something in a dream which makes
the dreamer realize he is dreaming, and the poet becomes lucid, which is similar to waking up in
a dream. Money and our obsession with it restricts our freedom, and if this obsession is removed
Hoagland believes we may die truly happy.
Hoagland, uses juxtaposition through the poem to separate the new generation and the old
generation. The poem begins with a student “with blue hair and tongue stud” (Line 1) which
