School Day Afternoon

Through his childlike tone he creates through imagery and connotation,  Dave Etter shares the exciting feeling of a child being home alone, in his poem “School Day Afternoon.” The fact that the child is creating a sugar sandwich shows that he is having fun on his own, as this is something his mother would not allow him to eat as a snack. Instead of doing homework, the kid goes to explore “the birds and the gigantic blue silo” which he brings in at the end of his poem as well. This is also imagery of freedom, as his parents would not let him winder the fields alone, especially before his homework. His detailed dreams and the fact that he places an exclamation point after stating that his mother is “not coming home till dark” shows that he is excited and has no worries since he is home alone. This exciting imagery of a child is what Etter uses to make his readers feel the excitement of being a child experiencing freedom.