The Good Life Poem Theme

The Good Life past Tracy Chiliad. Smith

'The Good Life' by Tracy One thousand. Smith is an incredibly relatable verse form. In it, the poet asks the reader to consider their human relationship with money and what the 'expert life' really is.

'The Skilful Life' is one of many the poet laureate wrote that deals with everyday events and concerns. She uses clear wording in these lines, with uncomplicated syntax and easy-to-sympathise images. This allows as large a grouping as possible to connect to the sentiment she was trying to convey. She's non speaking to the overeducated and wealthy simply to those who take been in the same, or a similar, situation to that which her speaker was in.

The Good Life by Tracy K. Smith

Summary

'The Skillful Life' by Tracy K. Smith is a thoughtful poem virtually a speaker'due south relationship with money and the pleasures and hardships it could bring.

In the first lines, Smith makes an interesting comparing between money and a "mysterious lover." These images brand her speaker experience cornball for a fourth dimension in which money was something she had right subsequently payday. For the residue of the calendar week or month, she lived on coffee and bread. Despite this hardship, she tin't assist simply romanticize this time in her life and recollect information technology fondly.

You tin read the full poem here.

The Championship: "The Good Life"

"The Good Life" is a well-used phrase that is ordinarily used to refer to the earth of the wealthy. It is one of luxury where the need is a thing of the past. In Smith's poem, readers tin can consider this definition of "the practiced life" or dig deeper and consider the life that Smith's speaker feels nostalgia for. It was ane where coin only featured rarely, making its presence all the more meaningful.

Themes

In 'The Good Life,' Smith engages with the themes of money/wealth and happiness. She evokes feelings of nostalgia equally her speaker looks dorsum on their life and recalls how they once dealt with money. The speaker takes pleasure from how money'southward rare presence in her life brought her joy that 1 may assume no longer exists. This kind of happiness came about from difficult piece of work and simple indulgence.

Structure and Form

'The Practiced Life' by Tracy 1000. Smith is a x-line poem that is independent within one stanza of text. The lines exercise not follow a consistent rhyme scheme, nor do they conform to a metrical pattern, meaning they are written in free verse. This style of writing is common to Smith'south poetry. Despite this, the lines are themselves visually similar. They appear to mostly be the same length, containing around the same number of words.

One of the more interesting features of this poem'south structure is the fashion that Smith chose to deal with line breaks, using end-stopped lines and enjambment. The latter occurs when the poet cuts off a line before its natural stopping betoken—for example, the very effective transition between lines three and 4. Readers have to move down to the next line in order to stop the thought. The empty space subsequently "never" is evocative of money's absenteeism. The only menstruum in the poem is at the finish, concluding it with a solid finality that leaves readers thinking about the times they lived the "skillful life."

Literary Devices

Smith makes apply of several literary devices in 'The Good Life.' These include simply are not limited to:

Alliteration: occurs when the poet repeats the same consonant sound at the commencement of multiple words. For example: "makes me" in line four and "walking" and "piece of work" in line six.
Caesura: can be seen when the poet uses a pause in the middle of a line, either through the utilize of punctuation or a natural pause in the meter. The former can be seen in line six, which reads: "Hungry all the time, walking to work on payday."
Personification: an case tin can be seen in the 2nd and tertiary lines when the poet describes money as a "mysterious lover" who went out and never came back.

Detailed Assay

Lines 1-v

When some people talk about money
They speak as if it were a mysterious lover
(…)
For the years I lived on coffee and bread,

In the first lines of 'The Practiced Life,' the speaker, who is normally considered to be Tracy K. Smith, begins by throwing the reader into an epitome of how money is perceived and discussed. She uses personification to depict its fleeting and surprising nature. At one moment, everything seems stable, and in the next, it walks out the door to buy milk and is never seen again. By comparing it to a "mysterious lover," the poet is drawing comparisons betwixt money and happiness, pleasance, and excitement. It's these things, but information technology is besides inexplainable and difficult to sympathise. She'south too suggesting that 1 cannot depend on money, just like they can't depend on a mysterious lover. They tin can leave anytime without explanation.

In the side by side lines, the speaker shifts to her personal perspective on coin. Whenever she hears anyone talk nigh money, she starts to feel nostalgic. She doesn't exactly miss the times she had money, but the times where she had to live on "coffee and breadstuff." Money at this fourth dimension in her life was a luxury, something that she didn't take all the time, nor could she depend on. The following lines brand her perspective clearer.

Lines 6-10

Hungry all the time, walking to piece of work on payday
Similar a woman journeying for water
(…)
On roast craven and scarlet wine.

The speaker looks back with feelings of nostalgia (misplaced or genuine) for the times she walked to work on payday to pick up what she'd earned. She felt and so, or does at present, when she looks dorsum on those times, similar a "woman journeying for h2o / From a hamlet without a well." She felt similar she was working, suffering, and putting in the fourth dimension to have afew days of luxury. It was this difficult work and the contrast between "coffee and bread" and "roast chicken and wine" that remains a vibrant memory in her listen.

The days she lived the "practiced life" were fleeting and filled with pleasure that made the other hardships seem worth information technology. It's piece of cake to read deeper into these lines and consider how life so was probable simpler than it is now. She dealt with money when she had it, and due to its mysterious nature, she'southward able to romanticize the experience.

Like Poetry

Readers who enjoyed 'The Good Life' should also consider reading some of Tracy K. Smith's other poems. For instance:

' I Don't Miss It ' – explores loneliness later the end of a, particularly impactful human relationship.
' Semi-Splendid ' – features an argument between the speaker and their partner and focuses on the difference between standing up for oneself and not.

Some other related poems include:

'kitchenette building' by Gwendolyn Brooks – based around Brooks' experiences in Chicago in small, poor housing complexes.
' good times ' by Lucille Clifton – explores the simple things that make for "practiced times."