Poetry Analysis

"Toronto one"

By Donna McCaw

The Spell of Crazy Love, page 60

I picked the poem Toronto one because of the title. This poem can be found in the book The Spell of Crazy Love, which is a collection of poems by Donna McCaw. I was drawn to the book because of its clean, simple design, and how the font reminded me of Lord of the Rings. Scanning through the table of contents, I  immediately noticed Toronto one, because I like the city of Toronto. I would like to move there soon.

Donna McCaw is a local, since she is from Elora, which is very close to Guelph. She attended the University of Guelph as well as the University of Toronto.

Perhaps, the poem is based on the author's own experience, because it is set in Toronto, where she went to school at some point.

The poem explores themes of loneliness and emotional distress. The woman in the poem is sitting alone in her Toronto apartment. The space is too big, it feels empty because she feels lonely.

I like the following line;

photogenic as hell

because it illustrates how the woman is pretty, without actually saying so.

caught in an emotional crossfire

Means that she had a fight with someone, perhaps a boyfriend, but one should not assume this. 

too many empty echoes

too much sterile space

is a way of expressing how her apartment is too "clean", without life, because sterile means free from germs, specifically in a medical environment. Many people have an aversion to hospitals, perhaps this is why the word sterile was used.

The woman in the poem might be depressed, but this is a strong assumption to make.

I like the line;

 portrait in black and white

because it reminds me of the earlier line, "photogenic as hell". Perhaps what the author means by portrait is a photograph, which, depending on the date of the poem, could be because colour photography was not available at the time.

I like how the poem loops
. The first line is "sitting on a lonely chair", and the last one is "woman on chair in kitchen".

The Right Age to Vote

As much as I think kids my age should be taken seriously, I don't think it would be a good idea to lower the voting age to sixteen.

I wanted to vote this election. This was the first time I ever showed interest in Canadian politics. I think I was just interested in knowing what political party's views matched my own. Therefore, I took a quiz online. I was not surprised with my results.

Since the election was so long, I think it was often the subject of conversation. Discussing my views with my family, (or keeping my mouth shut because I didn't want to make an ignorant comment) I realized that I know nothing about politics. I was only focusing on what party I'd like to be elected, and not about the bigger picture, such as which party would be the best fit for the country.

I think I'm not mature enough to make a proper decision on which political party to elect. The right to vote makes you feel important, but it's a responsibility that shouldn't be taken lightly.

I say responsibility because people should vote. I hate when people don't vote, and then complain about the results, or that they are not "well represented".

I don't think the voting age should be lowered to 16, because most 16-year-olds are not informed enough on politics. I can say that when I was 16, I knew very little on the political parties.
Also, I feel like at 16, you don't really care about politics, to be blunt.

My Adaptable Mind

I am a curious person, because whenever I don't know something, I like to google it and find out more about it. I think this is because I like to have trivial knowledge. It makes for interesting conversations.

I like to think I'm a person who takes the initiative. When I notice no one is raising their hand in class, when the teacher asks a question, I usually like to speak up and try to answer.

I am a very empathetic person. I am able to understand what other people are going through, which I think is a good quality.

I must work on expanding my horizons and display multi-disciplinary thinking, because all I think about is fashion, movies and books. I focus on the Arts much more than I do on Science, because I'm not good at Science and Math. I wish I were.