Some thoughts on Reading

"One way to look at reading: as the lifelong construction of a map by which to trace and plumb what it has ever meant to be in the world, and by which to gain perspective on that other, ongoing map—the one that marks our own passage through the world as we both find and make it."
From "Another and Another Before That: Some Thoughts on Reading," by Carl Phillips

Speaker: We believe that the speaker of the poem is a life long reader who has formal education. We believe this because to know about books and reading one must read books and be of the knowledge to write books yourself. The speaker of the poem relates books to maps of life, the speaker may have either been a hiker at one point or perhaps a sailor because both use maps.

Diction: The diction in the poem relates books to maps. The choice of words that the author uses is much about direction and following a path. This is important because books are full of knowledge and life is all about knowledge. The other aspect of books is that they are full of logic and reasoning, thus a map has a logic and reasoning aspect to it. The choice of words in this poem all relates back to path ways and maps.

Imagery: The imagery in this poem is all about reading a book and reading a map. The author describes a map by using a finger tracing a path, the book is described by using the insight and perceptiveness of another person. The imagery in this poem is not all that important but it is relevant.

Figurative language: "look at reading: as the lifelong construction of a map" is a simile because of the comparison of reading and a map.

Meaning: Through our analysis of the speaker, diction, imagery, and figurative language we have deduced that the meaning of the poem is that a book is a map that can lead you through life. We believe that to read a book is to find another piece of the map thus you are a fuller more enlightened person.