Response to "Pantoum of the Great Depression" by Donald Justice, Donald Justice, Donald Justice

In the “Pantoum of the Great Depression” Donald Justice uses images, tone, and repetition in order to express the hardships experienced throughout the Great Depression. The speaker, most likely a member of the middleclass, talks about the life before the Great Depression. He begins discussing life’s normality by saying their “lives avoided tragedy” and although “there were storms and small catastrophes” there was “no need for the heroic.” The use of repetition in the early parts of this poem can entail that nothing unique happened to them or anything ever changed. The use of the plural personal pronoun we, implies that it was not only the speaker’s life that was filled with normality and without change but also fellow members of the middleclass. The first half of the poem’s sound is somewhat euphonious in that it possesses relaxed sounds that create a relaxed mood. This mood allows the audience to further believe that before the Great Depression occurred life was very calm and relaxed. The speaker brings about the Great Depression by saying “The Great Depression had entered our souls like fog.” This vivid image allows us to gain a feeling of how the Great Depression filled and covered their life; similar to how fog fills and covers the sky and ground. “And time went by, drawn by slow horses” is another image Justice uses to discuss the Great Depression. In this case he expresses the length and how long it took for the Great Depression to pass. During this part of the poem there is an increase in harsher sounds. With the use of “perhaps” and “private”, words that are cacophonous, can relate to the harsh times during the Great Depression. Finally, similar to the beginning of the poem the use of plural personal pronouns implies that the Great Depression’s hardships were experienced by many not just one

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