An Accident Waiting to Happen
In life, an innocent bystander, parent, or friend may receive news that changes their life forever. A death of a loved one is something that can drop anyone to their knees in agony. Karl Shapiro’s “Auto Wreck” faces the hard truth that is involved in a car accident. In summary, “Auto Wreck” is a gut-wrenching retelling of a brutal mishap in which two cars collide in a fatal accident. The poem concludes on a more philosophical note explaining the certainty that is faced in true death and how unseen and sudden a car accident can alter a family in an instant. Karl Shapiro printed “Auto Wreck” from his collection of poetry entitled Selected Poems. His poem collection, that explores the harsh certainties of war, which …show more content…
Parallelism is the use of repeating words or structures which create parallel or similar phrases. This literary device is used often in the poetry of any time period for producing rhythm and balance to a phrase. Shapiro uses parallelism which shows that multiple actions are occurring at once or that an action is being done with similarity. In the second stanza, Shapiro’s usage of the word, “one”, shows that the different police officers are going about each individual duty. The officer’s actions include “one is still making notes under the light. One with a bucket douches ponds of blood… one hangs lanterns on the wrecks that cling.” (17, 18, 20) This parallelism produces a sense of action after the dreary death of a victim for the audience. The use of “light” and light synonyms in the first and third police officer’s actions can be looked at as a symbol of hope even though it comes after a line that entails many negative connotations. Karl Shapiro also makes use of the lines “Who shall die? ... Who is innocent?” (31 & 32) in a parallelism form. The questions can also be looked at as rhetorical questions since Shapiro is not necessarily looking for an answer. The parallel form of these successive lines makes the reader feel as if they are actually there making a decision for death as to who he should take, who lives, and for the judge deciding who was responsible for the slaughtering of their unknown
In life, an innocent bystander, parent, or friend may receive news that changes their life forever. A death of a loved one is something that can drop anyone to their knees in agony. Karl Shapiro’s “Auto Wreck” faces the hard truth that is involved in a car accident. In summary, “Auto Wreck” is a gut-wrenching retelling of a brutal mishap in which two cars collide in a fatal accident. The poem concludes on a more philosophical note explaining the certainty that is faced in true death and how unseen and sudden a car accident can alter a family in an instant. Karl Shapiro printed “Auto Wreck” from his collection of poetry entitled Selected Poems. His poem collection, that explores the harsh certainties of war, which …show more content…
Parallelism is the use of repeating words or structures which create parallel or similar phrases. This literary device is used often in the poetry of any time period for producing rhythm and balance to a phrase. Shapiro uses parallelism which shows that multiple actions are occurring at once or that an action is being done with similarity. In the second stanza, Shapiro’s usage of the word, “one”, shows that the different police officers are going about each individual duty. The officer’s actions include “one is still making notes under the light. One with a bucket douches ponds of blood… one hangs lanterns on the wrecks that cling.” (17, 18, 20) This parallelism produces a sense of action after the dreary death of a victim for the audience. The use of “light” and light synonyms in the first and third police officer’s actions can be looked at as a symbol of hope even though it comes after a line that entails many negative connotations. Karl Shapiro also makes use of the lines “Who shall die? ... Who is innocent?” (31 & 32) in a parallelism form. The questions can also be looked at as rhetorical questions since Shapiro is not necessarily looking for an answer. The parallel form of these successive lines makes the reader feel as if they are actually there making a decision for death as to who he should take, who lives, and for the judge deciding who was responsible for the slaughtering of their unknown