Sophie Cabot Black's Poem 'Private Equity'

Former President Lincoln once said,“The best way to predict your future is to create it.” Sophie Cabot Black also shared this idea, in her poem, constantly emphasizing the idea that the future is discovered by working into it. In Private Equity, Black uses tone and rhythm to establish a theme that even though the future is out of anyone's hands, people still have the power to make choices in present time, which can affect possibilities for the future.

Throughout the poem, the speaker sets moving tones, shifting them towards the end. The speaker uses a tone of confidence to describe diving into the unknown saying,“Even without enough information./ We work into it, the chosen. To measure/ Everything out until the one who takes over/ Becomes taken”(4-7). The speaker emphasizes the idea of people continuing to push themselves until things begin to fall into place. This passage also identifies “the chosen” as the people who step up and take charge, leading back to the idea that while people physically can't fully control the future, their choices leading up to, can. Later, …show more content…
Portrayed throughout the poem, the speaker uses an uneasy flow, to demonstrate how the future is often rough and not always consistent: “The art/ of how we build until management/ in turn builds us,” (7-9). Again this all adds up to say that the future is uncharted territory so things may be rocky for a while but it's all about pushing through, because all the work put in will pay off eventually. Sharing a similar flow, the speaker shares, “Elegant the logic / used. To draw out more than what is put in,(9-10).” This area of unsteady rhythm has a scattered beat which relates to life's inconsistency. Repeated throughout the poem, rhythm proves to effectively convey the idea of how the future is unpredictable, but requires people to make the most of it and work through