One Today- Poem Analysis

"One Today"- Poem Analysis Richard Blanco is a Cuban- American poet who was given the oppurunity to write an inaugaration poem for Barack Obama's second swearing-in. He wrote a poem titled "One Today" that praised the good and unique things about the United States and also the everyday people who's daily routines help to make America the proud country that it is. Blanco uses several rhetorical devices throughout "One Today", more so in the first few stanzas. An example of figurative language he used was the repetition of certain words or similar words in order to create a flow within the poem. "My face, your face, millions of faces in morning's mirrors" is a line in the poem that best represents this. Blanco also uses personification to give a better description of the beauty that he is describing, such as "plum blush of dusk". Another use of figurative language found in stanza four is the repetition of the word "hands" which he uses to represent the many hard-working hands of America and the things they do to contribute to the well-being of the country. The word choice in the poem is a big part of what I think ties the whole poem together, and creates a theme that carries through each stanza. As you read the poem you will notice the excessive use of the word "one" which is most often featured at the beginning of a stanza and followed by something that connects everyone in the country together. An example of this is the first line in the fourth stanza of the poem, which reads "One ground. Our ground, rooting us to every stalk of corn, every head of wheat sown by sweat and hands...". Another example is the use of words that represent movement. "Rose, charging, crescendoing, teeming, launching, jetting" are all words used throughout the poem that outline the daily movement that occurs in the lives of American citizens. In the sixth stanza of the poem Blanco gives examples of the many different ways that you may hear U.S residents say hello. I think that he