Critical response: New and Selected Poems, Soto "Its a Small World After All" revised

James Galvan

English 306

Steve Pett

Critical response: New and Selected Poems, Soto

The book New and Selected Poems by Gary Soto contains many poems that are full of unique qualities and characteristics that only can be seen in Soto’s writings. Soto seemed to write his poems in order to find meaning in what he was viewing or experiencing in his life. Throughout Soto’s book there are many qualities which can be seen in his poems such as clever uses of imagery and similes, his subjects for writing can also be identifies after reading a few of his poems, and his style of writing can be noticed with similarities in most all of his poems.

Soto would write his life experiences in poems using brilliant imagery and using similes and metaphors to help detail how he felt about certain objects or themes. For example, in the last stanza at the bottom or page eleven “From the smashed bus window, I saw the leaves of cotton plants Like small hands waving good-bye” Soto cleverly uses imagery and similes to explain in detail what he had seen when he was riding on a bus. Some other poems where similes and metaphors can be seen are “The Creature” were he writes “Perched like a bird On my left Shoulder” which can be seen as a simile and the poem “Black Hair” when he writes “My black torch of hair, about to go out?” which can be seen as a metaphor. Another example in which I found that Soto cleverly used imagery and similes was in his poem “The Journey” on page thirty four. Soto writes “Until it stopped Where stones climbed Like a stairway These terrible Hills.” Not only did Soto write this part of the poem from what he had seen but he also used the states “These terrible Hills” that clearly shows emotion in his writing on how he felt about them. In the poem “Chuy” in the seventh stanza you can get a sense of emotion from the lines “The doctor glinting With a needle, Chuy backed off, Particularly frightened Of the cotton ball”,

Soto’s subjects for writing seem to be based of what he is witnessing and the places he is in. A great amount of Soto’s poems seem to be based on things from nature. This is possibly because the majority of what Soto witnessed through life that had an impact on him was when he was outside and he could use his writing to express how he felt about what he had seen. Most of Soto’s poem can show that he has witnessed things from nature for example the poem “In December” on page fourteen Soto writes “to find nothing But vinegar And an unstrung necklace Of dead flies.” Which can easily be seen as nature at work with his own imagery added in. The place Soto appears to be writing about a lot is in California.

When looking at Soto’s poems, it seems that most of his poems have no repetition in the words that are being used except in a few such as “Telephoning God”. Soto seems to prefer to have his poems always changing from one view to another and never looking back at what previously just happened. Soto writes most of his poems as if they are always on the move from viewing one thing to another. A great example of this can be seen in his poem “Summer” on page ten.

Soto’s style of writing seems to be his use of using a lot of imagery with his writing. Soto also appears to just go with the flow off things that pass him by and them finds how they can relate to a deeper meaning. For example if it happened to rain out side Soto might start talking about how the “rain flatten sycamore leaves” and then “Ants raised around their holes I should be out of work” like in is poem “Rain” on page eight. Another style that can be noticed in Soto’s poems is his use of have small objects in a lot of his writings. In his writings you will see Soto write about flies, ants, midgets, insects, and even use imagery about other small objects. Examples of these can be seen in lots of poems such as “In December” when he writes “Like small red globes” for imagery, the poem “The Evening of Ants” the poem “A Few Coins” he writes “To form a circus: Nude dancers, a midget With minute genitals” the poem “ The Tale of Sunlight” he writes “Through a small hole” and “When a Fly settled” and the poem “The Street” he writes “A hive of gnats.” “Into a jar of flies, wingless” and “For the ants, A small cargo”. In addition, you will notice that Soto’s poems have to do with poverty in most cases. Lastly, Soto doesn’t seem to use rhymes in his style of writing poems.

As with any other poet, unique characteristics can be seen in Soto’s poems such as his uses of imageries and similes, his subjects for writing which display nature and poverty, and his style of writing which shows that he likes to have small things in his poems such as insects, midgets, and even other small objects like tomatoes. All poets will always have their own ways for writing poetry but no one will every write with such brilliance and clever usage of commanding words like Gary Soto.