Day-Long Day
It examines the work with regard to its
diction, syntax, denotation and
connotation, imagery, metaphor and simile,
tone, rhyme and meter, allusion, and
theme. (8.5 pages; 5 May 2000). Day-Long
Day" I Introduction Tino
Villanueva’s "Day-Long Day" is a remarkable
work, for it captures in 34
short lines the anger, frustration, and cruelty
of the life of Mexican migrant
workers in Texas. The searing heat, the
backbreaking and painful work of picking
cotton—all of it is here in vivid
detail. II Diction "Diction" refers to
the choice of words an author uses
that distinguishes his "voice" from
everyone else’s. That is, if you pick up
a book by Charles Dickens, you
don’t have to read very far before you know
without looking who the author
is—he has a unique style. Much of that style
depends on diction, which are the
words a writer chooses to use and the way
he constructs sentences. In
Villanueva’s case, he uses many Spanish
phrases, so that we know he is a
Spanish-speaker. He also uses
sophisticated language and striking constructions,
so that we know he is
educated, even though he is a field hand: "Daydreams
border on sun-fed
hallucinations, eyes and hands automatically discriminate
Whiteness of
cotton from field of vision." His choice of the word"discriminate" rather than
"choose", as well as the phrase "field of
vision", indicate a high degree of
intelligence. Whether this is the
intelligence of the poet or the field hand
is immaterial at this point, for
Villanueva has described the scene so
vividly that we believe he is one with the
other workers. The impact of the
poem is not lessened if we find that he is not.
III Syntax "Syntax" is
the way in which words are arranged to form
sentences. Construction is
another good indication of intelligence, for it can
be used to enhance the
meaning of words. In the lines above, Villanueva might
have said "...hands
and eyes automatically find the cotton in the glare of the
sun." Instead, he
says "...hand and eyes automatically discriminate
whiteness of cotton from
field of vision." The words "discriminate" and"field of vision" are very
sophisticated and again, indicate a high degree
of intelligence at work here.
But they are also loaded with other meanings:
"discriminate" not only
means to choose, it also carries an ugly meaning, as
in "discriminate
against". Likewise "field of vision" reinforces the
image of the workers in
the field under the blazing sun. III Denotation and
Connotation
"Denotation" means the direct and explicit meaning of a
word;
"connotation" is an indirect reference, additional qualities
suggested by a
term in addition to the primary meaning (i.e., "politician"
has different
connotations from "statesman".) In "Day-Long Day", Villanueva
uses very
little denotation, nor do his words carry different connotations.
He works
mainly in metaphors, simile, imagery and symbols. IV Imagery Imagery
is present
when a poet appeals to our five senses. Imagery also includes such
things as the
sensations of heat and pressure. In this work, the most
powerful image, the
dominant one, is the heat. It is mentioned over and over
again, either directly
or indirectly, as: "sun-fed hallucinations", "Un Hijo
del Sol," "sweat
day-long dripping", "sun blocks out the sky, suffocates the
only breeze",
"summer-long rows of cotton", "sweat-patched jeans", "the
blast of
degrees", "sweltering toward Saturday", "the day-long day is
sunstruck."
The entire poem is both a hymn to the sun and a curse at it.
V Metaphor and
Simile More definitions: a metaphor is a figure of speech
which compares two
incompatible things without the use of a connective term;
a simile compares
things of different classes through the use of a connector
such as "as",
"like" "seems" or others. "My love is like the red, red
rose" is a
simile; "the curtain of night" is a metaphor. I will admit that
similes and
metaphors are tricky little devils to catch. In this work, the
one that stands
out most clearly for me is "third-generation timetable." This
is a linking
of two entirely incompatible terms. "Third-generation" refers to
a family,
while a "timetable" is a schedule, most often used in connection
with
finding out the timesof trains. Here, I believe he is saying that the
family
had hoped to break out of the cycle of poverty and migrant working by
having the
grandson (the third generation) go to school, but that plan
(the"timetable") is now upset, because the boss wants them to pick more
cotton,
even if it means sacrificing the boy’s education and the family’s
dreams of
getting him out of the fields. The lines that make this clear are:
"’From el
amo desgraciado,’ a sentence: I wanna bale a day, and the boy here
don’t
hafta go to school.’" "El amo desgraciado" means "the
despicable
boss". Obviously the man doesn’t care what becomes of the child or
the
family, all he wants is to meet his quota—surpass it it possible—and if
that
means the child has no future except as a field hand, the boss couldn’t
care
less. He is going to stand in the way of the boy’s education for the
sake of
the crop. VI Tone "Tone" in written literature is somewhat vague.
It
generally means the way in which the poet hopes the reader will "hear"
his
words. Since he cannot speak aloud to us, he chooses words that will
convey not
only his direct meaning, but how he feels about his subject. I
said that the
tone of this poem is angry, and I believe it is, because that
is what I feel
when I read it. Certainly the blazing sun, the pain in the
hands and backs of
the pickers, the hopelessness of the boy who won’t be
going to school, all
these add up to a bleak and unpleasant situation. But
there is an underlying
feeling about it that indicates to me these people
know they are being abused,
and although they have been treated badly for
three generations, I get a sense
that they are ready to rebel. Poetry is
probably the most subjective of all the
language arts, so each reader will
take something different away with them. This
is what I felt was going on
under the surface, possibly because of the use of
the strong "despicable" to
describe the boss. VII Rhyme and Meter
"Meter" refers to the pattern of
stressed and unstressed sounds in the poem;
when the work is read aloud, the
stresses combine to form patterns that repeat.
In this work, however,
there are no such stresses, or repeating patterns. It is
a free verse poem.
Likewise, it has no rhyme. Rhyme is the repetition of sounds
that are
identical: "the fat cat sat on the mat". Villanueva does not use
rhyme,
perhaps because it has a distancing effect. When we read a poem that
rhymes,
we often get caught up in the rhyme scheme and then become aware that we
are
reading poetry. Villanueva wants us to remain in the field with the
migrant
workers, and so does not interpose the extra layer of distance
between them and
us. VIII Allusion An "allusion" is an "indirect reference"
or "casual
mention"; i.e., the speaker alluded to the budget amendment in the
course of
his remarks. In "Day-Long Day", there are no such casual
mentions.
Everything is immediate, direct, and sensational (as in we can
feel the
sensation of the heat, the pain, the disappointment, the
resentment). The work
is not casual in any sense. IX Theme The main theme of
the poem is the
hopelessness of the migrants’ condition. They work as they do
because that is
all they know. This is the third generation to work in the
fields in the
sweltering Texas summer, and their hope for a better life—or at
least for a
better life for the boy—is dashed by the "despicable" boss who
would
rather have the child working in the fields than going to school. The
workers
dream daydreams that are not far removed from heat-induced
hallucinations, and
their only relief is a drink of water from an old jug.
They spend their lives in
an endless cycle of misery and poverty:
"row-trapped, zigzagging through
summer-long rows of cotton" This work is all
they know, and they are
figuratively trapped by their ignorance as they are
literally trapped by the
closely-spaced rows of cotton plants. X Conclusion
This is a wonderful poem. The
title itself is intriguing, as it can be read
in many different ways: it’s a
long day, to be sure, but is it only a day
long? Or is this the life that these
workers will lead forever? Villanueva
tells us that they will never escape, and
in so doing, reveals a powerful
voice in the literary world.