Lessons in Parenthood
Part I: Vocabulary
The youngest child sits
for the perfidious SAT tomorrow,
and has decided to inflate
her lexicon with profligate haste.
I do not hazard to deem her endeavor
meretricious but rather
obfuscate my discomfiture
with unctuous, fatuous approbation:
The nest has shrunk, and her
flapping wings mark its walls;
myriad footsteps echo in the hall,
a plethora of words unspoken, superfluous.
Part II: Reading Comprehension
In considering tone and word choice
of the above passage,
which of the following
best describes this poem’s
central meaning (i.e. raison d’être):
(a) the author mocks his daughter’s
procrastination, fears she is a modern-day
Emily Dickinson, without the talent.
(b) the author harbors deep-seated
insecurities, which manifest themselves
in ironic, pretentious free verse.
(c) the author doesn’t want his daughter
to mature, because her growing up
represents a harbinger of his growing old.
(d) the author makes liberal use
of the online thesaurus.}
© 2010 Carver B. Goodly
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