How does the writer influence the audience through the use of language and conventions? We will be required to write an essay about this question.

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As a thesis statement for discussing how language influences the audience (reader) of a poem, you are sort of stuck in a redundancy--the poem is all language.  How about something like "What social conventions do the speaker and the neighbor share?" The whole poem is a portrait of New England rural life--make an essay out of that.  

Your thesis statement (essay means "to try") must state an arguable point of view--start with that.  Perhaps yoy could argue that the poet/narrator and the neighbor are not alike--different crops, different attitudes toward tradition, different senses of humor, different language skills, different educations, etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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