In Ruth Forman's "Poetry Should Ride the Bus," how do the images reveal the speaker's attitude toward poetry? Do you agree with the poem's ideas?

The poem argues that poetry should be a bright, positive force that is interwoven into the fabric of everyday life, not "out there" in a dusty library tome nobody reads.

In the first stanza, Forman uses the imagery of a polka-dotted dress and doing cartwheels down the street to show how poetry can brighten and sustain us in a childlike way even as we pass unhappy scenes such as crack houses. This imagery and juxtaposition of poetry's brightness with the dark elements of society continues in the second stanza, when Forman compares a poem to "bright red lipstick" and being pretty even as men shoot "craps" around the corner.

Poetry should also wear "plum suits" but not be so "educated" it can't sit on the porch steps with ordinary people and chat. It should be tucked between dinner foods like greens and chicken wings. Poetry should bring hope and "revolution" into everyday life.

All these metaphors describe poetry as a form that should be written in everyday language that anyone can understand. It should radiate a positive force that can help people as they walk down the street or ride the bus or sit on their porch steps.

Yes, I agree with this theory of poetry. I agree that poetry shouldn't be a dry academic exercise so full of arcane words and allusions that nobody can understand it. All of this hearkens back to Wordsworth's introduction to the Lyrical Ballads, a Romantic manifesto that declared poetry should be written in common language about common things and act as an uplifting force in the world.

Ruth Forman's "Poetry Should Ride the Bus" is metafictional and humorous. The poem is also didactic, meaning that it aims to teach or instruct: it explains what poetry "should" do. It also achieves a comic effect by juxtaposing the conventional "high art" of poetry with everyday and entertaining things like "wear[ing] a polka dot dress," "play[ing] hopscotch," and "wear[ing] bright red lipstick." The metafictional aspect results from the poem's being about poetry itself.

It is worth noting that the poem exhibits several types of figurative language. The first is anaphora, the repetition of the first part of a sentence. Here, the repetition is at the beginning of each stanza: "poetry should . . ." The poem also personifies poetry throughout the poem by ascribing human actions to the abstract idea of poetry (e.g., "poetry should wear bright red lipstick").

The final two stanzas maintain this personification, but they also add more gravity to the actions recommended, as these actions demonstrate emotions rather than just portraying behaviors. The second half of the poem insists that poetry should "drop by a sweet potato pie / ask about the grandchildren," "sing red revolution love songs," and "whisper electric blue magic . . . never forgettin (sic) to look you in the soul." Poetry should not only be outrageous; it should be accessible in everyday affairs and also emotionally provocative.

Forman's poem also employs descriptive but simple language to portray everyday events, such as "poetry should ride the bus / in a fat woman's Safeway bag / between the greens n chicken wings." Her message is that real poetry is not high-brow or abstruse; it is to be found in the beauty of common events.

Poetry is an art, and so its interpretation and appreciation will naturally be subjective. Regardless of interpretation, however, one can certainly appreciate Forman's departure from an understanding of poetry as something that necessarily exhibits complicated conceits and esoteric allusions.

Discuss the tone of "Poetry Should Ride the Bus" by Ruth Forman. Does it work?

Tone is the mood or emotion a poem evokes in a reader.

The tone of "Poetry Should Ride the Bus" is more complex than it looks at first glance. The poem, in fact, has two tones. The major or dominant tone is light-hearted, joyful, childlike, and sometimes funny, while the minor tone is somber and serious.

The light-hearted tone of the poem is conveyed in light, bright, silly images, such as the idea that poetry should "hopscotch in a polka dot dress" and "wear bright red lipstick / n practice kisses in the mirror." The lighthearted tone is reinforced by the informal "n" used throughout the poem for the more formal word "and." It could be read as if a child or teenager is telling this part of the poem.

The light-hearted tone continues with homey images of how poetry should be part of the fabric of everyday life. Poetry should

stop in
every now n then to sit on the porch
and talk about the comins and goins of the world

It is comfortable to imagine sitting on a porch talking with poetry. The dropped "g"s from "comins" and "goins" also portray African American Vernacular English and reflect the familiar, casual mood of the poem.

The lighthearted imagery Forman uses can even be tacky, and if you listen to her read the poem, you will hear the audience laugh at poetry being carried in a "Safeway bag between the greens n chicken wings" or dropping in to look at a photo album on "a orange plastic covered La-Z-Boy."

Yet alongside the major tone describing poetry as an everyday pleasure, a more serious tone emerges in the use of grimmer images, showing that poetry reflects both the good and bad in life, both the light-hearted and the serious. As the poem shows, the joyful and the grim often live side by side. Grimmer images include "the yellow crackhouse."

The more joyful tone, however, emerges at the end and merges with the more serious to imagine "red revolution love songs" that bring hope and poems that "whisper electric blue magic" to us. Poetry is serious when it talks of revolution or soul. The dominant light-hearted tone is, however, conveyed through the bright, childlike colors "red" and "blue," and though the words "love" and "magic." Finally, the poem ends with a happy, upbeat tone on the word "smile."

What does Ruth Forman's diction in "Poetry Should Ride the Bus" reveal about the speaker?

Diction is the type of words and grammar a poet or writer uses. Diction can be very simple and childlike, using short sentences and words of one syllable. It can also be very complex and literary, using unusual words and difficult grammatical constructions.

The diction in "Poetry Should Ride the Bus" is simple and childlike. It uses words that everyone would know, such as "bright red lipstick" and "sit on the porch," in ways which are very direct and straightforward.

The descriptive language—images that use the five senses of sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell—shows us that speaker is an observant person who has taken note of her environment and can communicate what it is like in concrete terms, such as "orange plastic covered lazyboy."

Her diction also doesn't use perfect grammar, reflecting the dialect of her culture. For example, she uses "n" for "and." This reinforces the childlike quality of her words and also shows she is not trying to impress anyone with her erudition. She comes across as simply being herself in a very authentic way.

However, some of the words interspersed within the bright, childlike prose are disturbing and remind us that this narrator is living in a dangerous place. For example, she mentions the "yellow crack house." This shows she is not ignoring the bad in her world. However, she chooses optimism, saying poetry should "whisper electric blue magic." The poem ends on the simple and upbeat word "smile," which suggests the speaker has chosen happiness.

The diction of a poem refers to the word choice and style used by the speaker. In "Poetry Should Ride the Bus" by Ruth Forman, the speaker uses the social vernacular of the African American community while using rhythmic, descriptive words to describe their experiences. If I were to analyze the author’s purpose for this, I would focus on these key points:

1. The poem accurately represents the voice of the black community and their common, everyday experiences. When most people think of poems, they think of romantic, lofty poems written in a formal, Old English style by old, white men, long gone, who dressed like Shakespeare (think Dead Poet’s Society). But is that how everyone talked back then? Is that how we talk today? Is poetry dead? The speaker of Forman’s poem is loud and clear: No, poetry is still alive! It can be found and should be sought anywhere, anytime, by anyone—hence, my favorite lines:

poetry should ride the bus
in a fat woman’s Safeway bag
between the greens n chicken wings
to be served with Tuesday’s dinner

Forman personifies poetry, asking it to experience what the regular folks do. She doesn’t want poetry to just be the stuck-up voice of high society.

1. The poem is meant to be spoken aloud. African Americans have a rich oral history that has been passed down through the generations. In fact, Forman aims to celebrate and continue that tradition and can to this day can be found traveling the country while performing many of her award-winning poems, including this one. Listen to her perform the poem at Busboys and Poets in Washington, DC (see YouTube link below). Which words of the poem have a rhythmic sound? Which words does she deliver with the most passion?

2. Some parts of the poem seem to be autobiographical. Forman grew up as a black girl in the 70s and, according to one biography, “spent many summers on the brownstone steps of her aunts’ and uncles’ homes in Philadelphia." After she earned her degree from the prestigious UC Berkeley and became an award-winning poet, many of her works drew from her childhood experiences and were meant to celebrate the strength, beauty, and pride of her culture. Which lines in the poem seem to represent her experiences growing up in a city? Which lines seem to represent her struggle to fit in with her new life as well as the community she left behind? Which lines seem to show her pride in her community?

All in all, Forman is able to convey through the speaker that everyone deserves to be heard and that beauty can be found in the little things and in the everyday experiences.