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The Day I Plan To Burn The Fields

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The poem The Day I Plan to Burn the Fields is quite interesting. I am glad I got this poem compared to poems other students received. When I first read this poem I understood how the speaker felt and parts of the story behind it. I could picture the woman clearly with parts of her environment. After reading it multiple times I picked up on her possible nationality, more imagery, and a greater understanding of her situation. The poem was hanging on my wall and on my phone since the day I received it. I showed it to multiple people and got mixed opinions on this poem. I related to this poem in certain aspects and it brought about many different emotions. The location of the poem is in Claxton, Georgia on what appears to be an onion farm or plantation. I found onions to be an important part of this poem. The onion is part of her and her family's life. The mother picks onions, breathes in onions, and her breastfeed tastes of onions. Personification and imagery of the onion is strong in lines one through three. The onion is hairy, pink, skins drying, and demands the luxury of tenderness. The speaker is implying that the onion looks like a baby and acts like a baby when it demands the luxury of tenderness. The whole poem creates the image of a woman working in a large onion field with the sun scorching down upon her and her family. Sweat, blood, tears, anger, and sadness would be seen on the faces of the speaker and any other workers in this field. The speaker is a mother of possible Spanish descent due to line 6. Si hace calor, a Spanish phrase, translates into it is warm. If I were given the name and background of the poet, it would aid me in acquiring more information in what the poet is trying to prove. Certain situations he or she went through can be very useful when reading the poem because it can give me an insight into how she feels about certain things. Knowing the name of the poet also gives us access to his or her other works. Their writing style, beliefs, and history would help my interpretation of the poet's work. However the authors name is not needed to accomplish the goal of finding the meaning of the poem. I was torn on the idea of if she is a slave or a farmer but according to the date in which the poem was written (2009) it must be a farmer. However to refute the idea of simply a farmer, in line five, "these shears taunt, "clip woman clip woman   could mean there is another person who says the same thing to the speaker perhaps her boss/master. The amount of ambiguity in this poem makes my head swirl with possible ideas. In line seven, it says, "My first child will be bo

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