Advice To My Son By Peter Meiinke: Balance The Beauties Of Life
680 Words3 Pages
Dro Mandani
Professor Elizabeth Bryer
English 102
17 September 2015
Balance the Beauties of Life Peter Meinke’s poem “Advice to My Son”, the speaker describes to his son the tricks of life and how to live. This poem does not have a specific rhyme scheme, but there are phrases that rhyme. The father explains the consequences to his son of his choices. The speaker of the poem tries to educate his son about decision making in life. A series of poetic and logical so called attempts in each line and in each stanza create a very powerful effect. “Advice to My Son” is a straightforward poem, portraying the distinction between living a good life and trying to keep a balance of plans for the future with contradicting ideas throughout. The contradiction…show more content… The father makes a great point that the son might be killed or simply die from a crash, and if he does not live the life he wanted to, then it will be very disappointing. Then the father goes on saying, “be specific, between the peony and the rose” (Line 11).This imagery lays out the senses of smell and sight. The two flowers are very similar in many aspects. Both are flowers,both have smell, but peony is just rare and more expensive. This represents that the son should make the best decision, but not just simply the good decision. All these imagery in stanza two contribute to the meaning of this poem. The father compares the squash and spinach, and turnips with tomatoes. To a reader these imagery can be taken in many ways. For instance, these vegetables were once seeds, they were grown in the farm with good care, then they were harvested at the right time for it to become a consumable product. This concept could be applied to humans , which the father tries to make his son understand. The effect of the nectar symbolism has a major effect towards the purpose of this poem. The nectar is beautiful he says, and it can save one in a dessert. It has the ability of saving a person in their low times in their life. I line seventeen, the son is told to “to marry