Analysis
History, Background, and Social Climate
For The Subject In this Poem, I aimed to reflect on the present perception of American Politics and Christianity, particularly regarding how some see immigration.
My Ethos As the speaker, I am multi-ethnic, including Mexican American heritage. I am also a Protestant Christian. I participate in democracy by voting, thus making me somewhat politi-cal. These things also reinforce any Bias that encompasses being a voting Mexican American Christian.
My audience is vague and can apply to the average person. Anyone can act, but this is par-ticularly true of the Christian American politicians. The Logos / Logic of this poem is not as pre-sent as the Pathos/appeal to emotions.
Tone / Literal Synopsis / Plot
In the title and first line, I mention a fascination with alien(s), which is to be used literally throughout the poem's first six lines.
Lines 8 –17 have the most substantial stretch of palpable tone. The tone is somewhat sin-cere yet self-serving.
In lines 11-13, I beckon to this alien/foreigner to assist our dreams, yet it comes as a clause that if they support us, we will support /it/them. I use terms like Dream to incite the idiom that is The American Dream. The earth here can also symbolize America.
Specifically, I use repetition in couplets 14-15 and build upon conditional support with "We'll learn, we'll work, just when You All Arrive / Together we'll stand Together We'll stive.". We'll learn we'll work just when you all arrive is another conditional statement, which states that support and preparation for aliens/immigrants won't be considered until they are here rather than support or plan beforehand. The immigration crisis has been prevalent for some time now, and the fact that politicians wait until things get so dire is the purpose of these lines.
Lines 18-21 cover the allegory and Bibliomancy of the alien being a biblical foreigner. I also end this section with some ironic rhetorical statements, considering that throughout the poem, I use a Christian American politician's point of view. The ironic point of view is that the expectations of being American and being Christian do not match the reality when speaking and acting on what needs to happen, which is to help the alien, thus accepting the truth that most, if not all, Americans were once foreigners.
Logos: The logic or reasoning in the poem is often implied through rhetorical statements like those highlighted in lines 8 and 9. "you alien would not fathom this world/lord, let alone un-derstand a spoken word" This depicts a real obstacle immigrants face when coming to America with the language barrier of American and being that America's unofficial language being English. Another obstacle is maneuvering through social customs, which are often aloof and primarily vio-lent or indifferent to others in America.
Pathos: I later appeal to the audience's emotions with lines 12-13:" If you do, I promise you, we'll be fair, / If so, we'll care if your worlds are in despair." The fact of the matter is that the countries that these aliens/immigrants are coming from are quite rough places and are in humanitar-ian despair of violence and corruption, which invokes emotions of sympathy.
Conflict & Context
Kairos: The current social-political climate is urgent because the immigration crisis de-mands our attention, but it is not limited to the crises in South America and Mexico.
As a result of this immigration crisis, America is seeing a large influx of immigrants; therefore, temperament and views of immigration are more important than ever, especially now when consid-ering the dire need for basic aid for our refugees and immigrants.
More Literal Synopsis and Repetitions
Throughout the rest of the poem, I simultaneously use aliens literally and as a metaphor for the alien being a foreigner. I also use aliens throughout the poem as a metaphor for a foreigner in a biblical context as an allegory.
The allegory is that one pointing to heavenly things. God's followers are foreigners to earth, meaning God's kingdom in heaven is to be the focus of a believer's Home.
Some repetitions I use throughout is the assonance of a sound found in couplet lines: 1&2, 8&9, 14&15, and 20&21
Throughout the poem, I use alien as a metonym for foreigner and symbolizing. At the be-ginning of the poem, as I have said, aliens, as extraterrestrials, could be a symbolic metaphor for foreigners. Interestingly, in this case, Alien/Foreigner are all a part of the metonym, symbol, and metaphor.
Lastly the entire poem uses a couplet rhyme scheme:AA,BB,CC,DD,AA.
And lines 8-21 are in a sonnet format.
Theme
The poem's central theme is one that is to be reflective/contemplative. The Intention is to incite reflection on how American politicians should view immigration and contemplate whether these views are reflective of the values America is said to be about.
