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Jack112 Posted 21 years ago
Grammar
Poetry -tenses
0 01 blockquote
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00 For the part that is bold, how come it is in past tense? What is the point of that? The whole poem is in present until the last paragraph. 02 br
02 br
00 Thanks. 0-
00 To the Foot from Its Child 12 br12 br
10 by Pablo Neruda 12 br
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10 The child’s foot is not yet aware it’s a foot, 12 br
10 and would like to be a butterfly or an apple. 12 br
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10 But in time, stones and bits of glass, 12 br
10 streets, ladders, 12 br
10 and the paths in the rough earth 12 br
10 go on teaching the foot that it cannot fly, 12 br
10 cannot be a fruit bulging on the branch. 12 br
10 Then, the child’s foot 12 br
10 is defeated, falls 12 br
10 in the battle, 12 br
10 is a prisoner 12 br
10 condemned to live in a shoe. 12 br
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10 Bit by bit, in that dark, 12 br
10 it grows to know the world in its own way, 12 br
10 out of touch with its fellow, enclosed, 12 br
10 feeling out life like a blind man. 12 br
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10 These soft nails 12 br
10 of quartz, bunched together, 12 br
10 grow hard, and change themselves 12 br
10 into opaque substance, hard as horn, 12 br
10 and the tiny, petalled toes of the child 12 br
10 grow bunched and out of trim, 12 br
10 take on the form of eyeless reptiles 12 br
10 with triangular heads, like worms. 12 br
10 Later, they grow calloused 12 br
10 and are covered 12 br
10 with the faint volcanoes of death, 12 br
10 a coarsening hard to accept. 12 br
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10 But this blind thing walks 12 br
10 without respite, never stopping 12 br
10 for hour after hour, 12 br
10 the one foot, the other, 12 br
10 now the man’s, 12 br
10 now the woman’s, 12 br
10 up above, 12 br
10 down below, 12 br
10 through fields, mines, 12 br
10 markets and ministries, 12 br
10 backwards, 12 br
10 far afield, inward, 12 br
10 forward, 12 br
10 this foot toils in its shoe, 12 br
10 scarcely taking time 12 br
10 to bare itself in love or sleep, 12 br
10 it walks, they walk, 12 br
10 until the whole man chooses to stop. 12 br
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11 b 10 And then it descended 12 br
10 underground, unaware, 12 br
10 for there, everything, everything was dark. 12 br
10 It never knew it had ceased to be a foot 12 br
10 or if they were burying it so that it could fly 12 br
10 or so that it could become 12 br
10 an apple. 12 b 10 12 blockquote
02 br
00 For the part that is bold, how come it is in past tense? What is the point of that? The whole poem is in present until the last paragraph. 02 br
02 br
00 Thanks. 0-
Top answer
0 Hello Jack 02 br 02 br 00 The present tense is used at first to present a 'general case'. 02 br 02 br 00 If it's a general case, it must have happened in various particular cases too. 02 br 02 br 00 The writer therefore changes to a past tense at the end to suggest that the lines apply to a particular case.
- 0 Hello Jack 02 br 02 br 00 The present tense is used at first to present a 'general case'.
- 02 br 02 br 00 If it's a general case, it must have happened in various particular cases too.
- 02 br 02 br 00 The writer therefore changes to a past tense at the end to suggest that the lines apply to a particular case.
- " 02 br 00 "That's true.
- " 02 br 02 br 00 Here we move from a general statement to a particular example.
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1 Answers
0
0 Hello Jack 02 br
02 br
00 The present tense is used at first to present a 'general case'. 02 br
02 br
00 If it's a general case, it must have happened in various particular cases too. 02 br
02 br
00 The writer therefore changes to a past tense at the end to suggest that the lines apply to a particular case. 02 br
02 br
00 Co
02 br
00 The present tense is used at first to present a 'general case'. 02 br
02 br
00 If it's a general case, it must have happened in various particular cases too. 02 br
02 br
00 The writer therefore changes to a past tense at the end to suggest that the lines apply to a particular case. 02 br
02 br
00 Co
0
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