The poem discusses the author's valuable experiences that have shaped who they are. It describes living in different places in Japan and other countries like the US and Thailand, experiencing different cultures and languages. It also discusses the author's love of soccer and the people they have met, who have all impacted them. The conclusion is that experiences enrich people and increase their knowledge and understanding of the world.

1. Nanase Isaka<br />Period 2<br />November 22, 2010<br />“Experiences” by Nanase Isaka<br />Japan: Saitama, then USA: Ohio, then Japan: Saitama, then Tochigi, and then Thailand: Bangkok.<br />All those different people, languages, cultures and environments.<br />They are my treasure.<br />Soccer.<br />All those feelings that I went through.<br />They are my treasure.<br />People who I met in my life among large number of world population.<br />All those individuals.<br />They are my treasure<br />Experiences make people big.<br />Enrich the experiences.<br />I want to experience many things.<br />And that’s what makes me who I am.<br />Critical analysis<br />Structure<br />I made each stanzas except the last one all three lines and simple so that the readers can know what is the topic for the each and its contents that is valuable for me. This also helps keep the rhythm consistent. Also, the last stanza stands out and gives it special meaning because it is a conclusion of the poem and includes my main points that I wanted to discuss.<br />Imagery<br />The sight imagery used in this poem is “treasure” at the end of the first three stanzas. This word, which is also a symbol, reminds people of the color gold. This color indicates, as the literal meaning of the word does, the valuable things. And the gold also illustrates the number one, showing that the “experiences” that I had or have is the most important thing in my life (l. 10).<br />Tone<br />The tone is consistent throughout the poem and is flat. The significance in the poem is the value, so the tone is the precious and carefulness. Each one in the poem has weight on it, connecting to the tone. The flatness also contributes to it, raising just facts that are valuable and meaningful.<br />Other stylistic devices<br />The symbol in the poem is the “treasure”. It illustrates the things listed have great significance on myself. This is repetitive as well as “all those”. It emphasizes it, and “all those” also shows that everything has impact on me. “then” in line one is repetition too and I used this as a function of an error to indicate the route I followed. There is two Saitama because I lived there twice but if there is no “then”, it is difficult to know this and might cause misunderstanding that I put it twice by accident. Moreover, there is a metaphor, “make people big” (l. 10). It means that experiences enrich people’s knowledge.<br />Theme<br />The theme of the poem is that the experiences are important which gives people more knowledge. It also tells the significance on the experiences that I have gone through. By gaining more knowledge, people can accept much more things that exist in the world and its meanings.<br />Personal reflection<br />This poem includes the main things that I value in very simple form. The experiences of moving and adopting new lifestyles and learning developed me as a person. I feel I’m wiser in a way, getting more understandings in many fields of areas. Secondly, soccer is very big part of my life. I like it a lot and I have learned many things from it, which does not only include soccer but others as well. The third one is friends. This has big impact on me because if even one of them lacked in my life, I think I would have been different from now and each one that I have met have something to do with me in some way. The difference between the “people” in first stanza and third one is that the first one is indicating the people as a group or its identity reflecting the place that they live in, whereas the later one is about each unique individual. I differentiated because I can sense the difference between the national characteristics, or place, of people and personality, and I think they are different.<br />