Summary Of Playing Basketball Before By Edward Hirsch

I appreciate this fascinating poem because Edward Hirsch describes a simple fast break in basketball as a slow, yet complex action performed by players. He writes as if everything is occurring in slow motion due to the the use of descriptive words evoking the five senses. Using imagery through his work, I get the feeling of tension and accomplishment through these stanzas. Playing basketball before, I have definitely experienced what he described in real life. There are many aspects to this poems that assists to make the poem more lively and relatable. Imagery is mainly used in this piece to help the readers visualize the fast break, making this poem seem as if the reader was at the basketball court experiencing what is going on. In the beginning of the poem it describes a basketball missing the hoop as “kisses the rim and hangs there, helplessly, but doesn’t drop.” The words “kisses” and “helplessly” help me visualize the split second that occurs when a basketball lands on the rim waiting for gravity to pull it down to the ground. At the end of the poem, the author uses the phrase “swiveling back to see an orange blur floating perfectly though the net” …show more content…
In the beginning, the author uses euphonic short “i” sound such as “kisses the rim” to describe calmness while the ball is on the rim but once the ball comes back down the the ground, the author transitions into cacophonic phrases such as “explodes past them in a fury,” to portray energy and action as the fast break is developing. Once the lay-up has been delivered, the author commits back to euphonic words in phrases such as “laying it gently against the glass” and “orange blur floating perfectly” to show how a fast break is a burst of energy occurring abruptly. Not only does the euphony and cacophony in this poem affect the feeling from this poem, but the line and stanza breaks help portray the speed and shortness of a fast