Poerty Analysis Of Football

Poetry Analysis

In the poem Football by Louis Jenkins, the author makes a new affiliation between football and life. Jenkins juxtaposes the idea of playing the decision maker on the football field as a quarterback with daily decisions of life. The poem is about a quarterback who has taken the snap from center and now has to make a decision on what his next move is. As he is pondering through his ideas, he closely begins to analyze his how his signal calling on the field relates to his judgments that he makes off the field. After contemplating with his thoughts, he then concludes that the receiver downfield is not open and doesn't throw him the ball. An existential critic would announce that the translation of this poem is a journey of an individual's thought process as he faces tremendous pressure. In his thoughts the individual concludes that his decision making on football field is relatively similar to his adjudication off the field.

The Existential point of view is a philosophy which claims that individuals create the meanings of their lives. There are a numerous examples of existentialism in this poem. The lines that jump out in the poem are six through a part of ten. These exemplary lines state:

"I realize that this is a world where anything is possible and I understand, also, that one often has to make do with what one has. I have eaten pancakes, for instance, with that clear corn

syrup on them because there was no maple syrup and they weren't very good."

These lines clearly give the indication that the speaker is comparing his position as a quarterback, where one has to sometimes make a compromise and take a sack instead of risking an interception; where one has to play it safe and not take a chance, to his daily adjustments in life. For instance, an existential critic would immediately point out the speaker's intention to give his own meaning and relate football to his life in the lines where he explicates how he had to eat pancakes with clear syrup instead of maple syrup. He implies that both as a quarterback and as an average joe he has to make good with his surroundings and sometimes have to settle for something less spectacular as in the case of clear syrup.

Meanwhile, Jenkins does not hide the speaker of the poem. The speaker is apparent from the beginning. As the first two lines state

"I take the snap from the center, fake to the right, fade back... I've got protection. I've got a receiver open downfield..."

By this statement the author undoubtedly portrays the speaker as a quarterback.