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emmazhu1106
emmazhu1106
30.03.2021 • 
English

Please help please this is due at 4:00pm please This is a poem (rat ode ) by Elizabeth Acevedo Rat Ode - Elizabeth Aceveda
Because you are not the admired nightingale.
Because you are not the noble doe.
Because you are not the blackbird,
Picturesque ermine, armadillo, or bat.
They’ve been written, and I don’t know their song
The way I know your scuttling between walls.
The scent of your collapsed corpse bloating
Beneath floorboards. Your frantic squeals
As you wrestle your own fur from glue traps.

Because in July of ‘97, you birthed a legion
On 109th, swarmed from behind dumpsters,
Made our street infamous for something
other than crack. We nicknamed you “Cat-
Killer,” raced with you through open hydrants,
Screeched like you when Siete blasted
aluminum bat into your brethren’s skull -
The sound: slapped down dominoes. You reigned
That summer, Rat; knocked down the viejo’s
Heinekens,
Your screech erupting with the cry of Capicu!
And even when they sent exterminators,
Set flame to garbage, half dead, and on fire, you
Pushed on.

Because you may be inelegant, simple,
A mammal bottom-feeder, always freakin’ famished,
Little ugly thing that feasts on what crumbs fall
From the corner of our mouths, but you live
Uncuddled, uncoddled, can’t be bought at Petco
And fed to fat snakes because you’re not the maze-rat
Of labs: pale, pretty-eyed, trained.
You raise yourself sharp fanged, clawed, scarred,
Patched dark - because of this alone they should
love you. So, when they tell you to crawl home
Take your gutter, your dirt coat, your underbelly that
Scrapes against street, concrete, squeak and flight this
page, Rat.

How do Acevedo’s pivotal words and phrases characterize her subject and what it represents?
Stanza 1

Stanza 2

Stanza 3

CONNOTATION: Select ONE word or phrase and comment on how the connotations of that word or phrase contribute to Aceveda’s characterization of the rat.

Connotation is what is implied by the word; a secondary meaning

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