"What the Motorcycle Said" by Mona Van Duyn

This poem is about a motorcycle and a lifestyle. This poem is a fantastic use of a different persona. The persona in this poem is a motorcycle, not the rider, not an onlooker nor an omnipresent voice. The motorcycle is speaking to you, the reader. The motorcycles is trying to explain just how badass it is.

"Br-r-am-m-m. It’s Nowsville, man. Passed Oldies, Uglies,

Straighties, Honkies. I’ll never be                                                       20

Mean, tired or unsexy."

The motorcycle is living in the present. It is not worried about the past nor what tomorrow will bring. Living in the present is something that I believe many people overlook and take for granted. Everyone walks around worrying about that big exam they had in class yesterday or the big exam they are taking tomorrow morning, but people do not take enough time to enjoy the present. This somewhat relates back to my last post talking about the simple greed of human society. People are too worried about what is going to happen and do not take enough time to appreciate what is happening. When was the last time you woke up before sunrise and actually enjoyed watching the dawn break? When was the last time took a risk or made what would seem like a questionable decision? The reason that people are likely stay on the straight and narrow is because they are worried about future repercussions due to their actions. While it is understandable in some ways that people do not take risks or do not just slow down to enjoy everyday things it is somewhat depressing and definitely unfortunate.

"Br-r-r-am-m-m, rackety-am-m, OM, Am:

All—gr-r-in, oooohgah, gl-l-utton—

Am, the world’s my smilebutton."                                                        30

This poem also uses a lot on onomatopoeia. The noises that a motorcycle would make while revving its engine or roaring down the road are written into this poem to give the reader a greater sense of the raw power, boldness, and ferocity that this motorcycle speaks and also acts with. Everyone know what a motorcycle sounds like and actually making the noises the motorcycle makes is fun but also gives you a greater connection to the words that the motorcycle is saying. 

The opening stanza refers to "the world's my oyster" this is felt to be true while reading this poem and is backed up with the actions and thoughts of the motorcycle. In the final line seen above the motorcycle refers to the world as his smilebutton. This goes along with the fact that the motorcycle is living for now and enjoying every second of it. Many people do not approach life in the sense, the carpe diem attitude seems to be wavering and shrinking with each generation. People are too worried about appearances or the thoughts of others to actually go out and do something for themselves without caring who is watching or judging. I believe that my generation as well as the generations younger than myself are too wrapped up in making sure that they are "cool" than being wrapped up in making themselves happy. If I am enjoying myself I could care less if my peers, or anyone else for that matter, approve of what I am doing. If you feel passionate about something then pursue it! I know many of my friends will not dance when we go out to clubs because there are not many people on the dance floor or they aren't very good at it. Who cares? Make yourself happy and forget the rest. People these days are too shy and too worried about embarrassing themselves. What is embarrassment exactly? A feeling created by society to shame you for something that may not be the norm, or the feeling that you "hope nobody saw that." Who cares if someone "saw that?" Why are people so worried about trying to make a good impression on people, especially people they do not know? If anything people need to start living their lives as if they are the ones that people should be trying to make a good impression on, and stop worrying if they are making a good impression on other people.